ARTICLES
When I first started writing online, it was primarily longer-form content housed on a variety of websites, including Thought Catalog and Elephant Journal. Below is a smattering selection of that work.
(Click the title to read the ARTICLE)
20 Books We Wish the World Would Read
"I wanted to know the book that changed their life, the book they recommend above all others, their most favorite read. If you’re looking for a new book to devour, a gift for a loved one, or an old treasure to reconnect with, this list is for you."
The Best Revenge Is A Happy Life, And I’m Committing Myself To Mine:
"Starting today, I take my power back. Starting today, I am enough."
Trust In The Things Life Throws Your Way — They Won’t Make Sense, But They Are Growing You:
"Life will happen in such random, fantastic, and fabulous ways that you’ll look back and laugh at the dots you connect and you’ll learn your missteps are still an important part of the dance."
I think I am in like with you:
"I wonder what kind of person you’ll grow up to be, and I wonder if your kind heart will survive the meanness of life like I hope it does, like I think it should..."
Making my Destiny Mine:
"I want to make opportunities, not just take them, and I want to push so strong and fight so long that my limits get tired of seeing me. I want to know my capabilities as well as I know my fears, and I want to slow dance with my nightmares until I have memorized their missteps..."
Twelve Life Lessons I Learned This Year:
"There is nothing more important than immediate action. Grab life by the balls and squeeze, twist, and pull. Punch your fears in the face. Kick tomorrow in the teeth. Get shit done, do good shit, and make shit happen. Go out and make a fucking difference in the world. Begin immediately..."
This is how I want to be loved one day:
"Let’s have mind-blowing, soul-shaking, toe-curling, giggle-inducing, don’t stop, won’t stop, gawk at galaxies inside our eyes and bite my lip as you devour my thighs fuck me senseless kind of sex. Loudly. Often..."
How to Make Love Stay When Love is a Man: Six Endless Tips:
"Make him believe that he can do anything at any time with anyone, and show him that you are right there with him, down in the trenches, fighting dirty, side by side, smiling at him when it’s needed and crying with him when it’s not..."
Ten Travel Truisms for a Swollen Heart, an Open Mind & an Inspired Soul away from Home:
"Go make memories. Go create stories. Go collect experiences. If I can sum it all up in one little sentence, let it be this: Live a life that would make you jealous..."
Ten Truths You Should Always Remember, But Don't:
"It’s a unique kind of documentary that narrates my existence as I get older, a book of me written over the course of a lifetime, a dynamic time capsule of personal development. Here are ten truths I learned this year..."
Healing Words For A Heavy Heart: You Are Brave:
"May the dust of regret choke your breath, may the fires of denial scorch your eyes, and may you crave thorns while aching for roses..."
A Story About Health Care and car crashes:
"Seriously, what the fuck is going on in America right now? Where has our decency gone? The unity and community we fought wars to preserve and defend? How is hypocrisy the new law of the land?"
#METOO: AS MEN WE NEED TO TAKE ACTION RIGHT NOW, INSTEAD OF JUST FUCKING TALKING ABOUT IT:
"I’m a man with a platform and a voice, a man who is trying to get better every day, a man who isn’t scared to say that I’m not where I want to be just yet, but I’m willing to have a chat about it. So let’s do that..."
Here Are All Of The Lessons I Have Learned From A Legend Who Just Turned 86:
"I hold this world in the palm of my hand and it’s on me to decide where I leave my fingerprints."
If You Love Someone, Have Them Read This:
"You are living, breathing happiness."
The most important lesson I've learned is to just trust in shit:
"Stars are dim yet they stay lit and the light they shine knows not what it is, but they are seen and savoured no matter how big, and so, too, are we, if we only persist..."
This is why the world does not need more sensitive men:
"The problem is that people keep telling us to be more sensitive when that’s the only fucking thing we truly are. But, if we assume that all men are inherently sensitive men, what then? Where do we go from here? How does the charade end?"
A Kindness Manifesto to Start the Revolution:
"I will always soar. Soaring is a choice for people with wings, and we all have wings. Let’s help each other soar. That’s my message..."
How to Make Love Stay: Six Endless Tips:
"There is only one serious question. And that is: Who knows how to make love stay? Answer me that and I will tell you whether or not to kill yourself..."
Just Be Kind:
"Let us be brave enough to be ourselves. Let us be powerful enough to resist the pressure to not pursue our own path. Let us be bold enough to make a difference. Let us honor ourselves and, in doing so, let us honor each other. Let us try to forget and let us remember to forgive..."
Your New Life Philosophy - The Fuck It Bucket:
"The Fuck It Bucket is the bastard child of “shit happens” and “don’t worry, be happy." I’m not sure what else to say about the Fuck It Bucket, except that I can’t imagine my life without it..."
Five Potent Conversation-Starting Questions:
"Finding the right question is tough because there are so many of them, surrounding us, everywhere at once — in our heads, at our work, and throughout our lives. Here are a few of my favorite..."
What if kindness was cool?
"We live in world where vulnerability is rare, a world where compassion is endangered and basic human connection is nearly extinct, a world where kindness has become a revolutionary act, and that’s tragic, but we should never waste a crisis..."
This Is What Hundreds Of Women Said Is The One Thing They Wished Men Understood About Them:
"I asked more than 400 women about the one thing they wished men understood about them. This is a summary of what I learned, as told from their perspective..."
This Is Why My Goal Moving Forward Is To Scar Faster Than Before:
"The world will rip you apart regardless of your armor, and life will see through you no matter the makeup or excuses. In spite of our defenses, we are ultimately defenseless. That’s what makes us human. That’s what makes us free. That’s what makes us real..."
THE OPPOSITE OF SELF-EXPRESSION IS APPROVAL:
"When we are not wholeheartedly honoring who we are and what we feel, when we bite our tongue and hide our truth, when we take jobs we don’t want to buy shit we don’t need in order to please our parents or community, we suffer. And when we all do that, when we are all taught to do that, the suffering spreads..."
Some Days Are Shit Sandwiches — Here’s How To Deal With Them:
"Today was an avoidable, unnecessary, incomplete and internal battle that ended in defeat for a part of me I had to release, but I’m not quite sure that I feel free. And that’s okay."
If you love me, remind me of that every single day:
"Remind me to always lie with you, but never to you, and that hurt only hurts while it lasts. Remind me to hold hands but never hold back..."
A Love Letter to my Alcoholic Mother:
"I’ll always remember the first time you refused to hug me because you didn’t want me to smell the alcohol on your breath. But, then again, I remember a lot of things from those years..."
You don't have to be female to fucking feel things:
"This is me saying that it’s fine to cry, and it’s good to feel, and it’s wonderful and beautiful and reasonable to experience the world in all of its ridiculous and surprising shades, the dark and the light, the sunset and sunrise..."
A New Year's Manifesto to Kickstart the New You:
"I did good work, made good friends, and met adversity time and time again, but I got by, and I’m still smiling, still humble. I’m grateful for the nightmares that sharpened my dreams, the fears that bolstered my bravery, and the deadness that made me feel alive..."
Why Choose to be a Writer?:
"Why would I choose to lust for the perfect adjective, crave the ideal verb, and long for that one true sentence, the one that burns with so much passion and perfection that my soul ignites, an unquenchable burn, a searing desire for more, more, more?"
Four Little Lessons My Heart Taught Me:
"Buried deep in our chests, with none of us giving it any credit, concern, or commitment, the heart works hard. There is honor in that determination. There should be admiration for that diligence..."
Twelve Things A Woman Told Me That Changed My Life:
"I’ve had countless conversations with women, from terrible to terrific and everything in between. Here are the twelve most memorable things a woman ever said to me, and what I learned..."
Four Reasons why You Should Be the First to Dance:
"The dark thoughts and past pains that prevent us from enjoying ourselves are banished when we boogie..."
Twelve More Writers You Need To Follow On Instagram:
"I’ve discovered countless creators who routinely fill my world with wonder, inspiring and challenging me to produce better work, be more vulnerable, and write more..."
Every Person You Meet Has A Story You Can Learn From:
"Sometimes hurt is rude and sometimes pain is mad. And, sometimes, in a small yard in a big city, sometimes heartbreak looks mean. We never know what a person’s story might be..."
ADULTING IS REALLY FUCKING HARD, SO HERE'S HOW TO DEAL WITH IT:
"Yes, adulting is a total pain in the ass sometimes, but the more often and easily we remind ourselves that we are lucky, living, breathing miracles, the easier it becomes to be an adult."
YOGA IS THE BEST FUCKING THING IN THE WORLD AND THIS IS WHY I HATE IT:
"Yoga recognizes that failure does not exist. Rather, growth exists. Persistence and patience, these things are real. Challenge is seen as an invitation to expand, a daily practice proving that overcoming is possible. So is progress. And the more we practice, the better we get..."
To The People Who Love Us Unforgettably:
"Your love is a lottery and I might forget the numbers I bet, but I won’t forget we won. I know the victory of us."
It's time to go and live your fucking life already:
"Now is the time to finish this frustrating chapter you’re sick of reading, pages you want to rip out and burn if only to warm the coldness you feel for the choices you’ve made..."
Twelve tips for completing the puzzle of you:
"We have health pieces and hope pieces, wealth pieces and work pieces, pieces of our past, our dreams, and the things we wish to be. Nothing ever falls to pieces. Everything is always in pieces..."
An Ode to the Broken-Hearted:
"The best people I know are not immune to heartache; they are intimate with it. They are the blessed, broken angels circling the holy kingdom of forgiveness, the destroyed divine crying tears of pristine grief..."
28 Questions I Wish the World Would Answer:
"What if we gave the stars overhead the same attention as the screens in our hand? What if our dreams mattered more? What if we knew that we were enough? What if we lived in a world where you were me and I was you, and, most importantly, what if we do?"
Five New Rules for New Manhood: The Need for a Mansformation:
"Shining armor isn’t something you wear, it’s something you are. Yes, be the knight that saves the day, but always remember that it’s not how you look that matters, it’s how you think, it’s how you feel, it’s who you are..."
Face Your Fears: Dare Yourself:
"Small actions, done with ferocious determination and an unwavering commitment, will change your life. Small life changes are the real big life changes..."
Owen's Love Nuke:
"On December 17, doctors will remove half of Owen’s brain. This is Owen. Owen's my nephew..."
Twelve Tips For Completing The Puzzle Of You:
"Just like the real ones, if you want to complete your own picture, the advice is the same: start with the edges and work your way in..."
twelve Writers You Need To Follow On Instagram:
"On Instagram, words warm, typewriters are the new black, and poets are the new rocks stars. You just need to know where to look..."
This Is How To Relieve Constipation Of The Soul:
"Progress isn’t always hustle and bustle, to do lists, and the grind. It isn’t lack of sleep or networking, and it’s definitely not being busy. Sometimes progress is a silent room. Sometimes progress means living your truth. Sometimes progress means freedom..."
OUR PROBLEMS AREN'T OUR PROBLEMS - OUR EXPECTATIONS ARE OUR PROBLEMS:
"When we encounter conflict or chaos, we can flee or we can face it. Our problems never go away, and the idea that they will or might or should is actually a bigger problem than the problems themselves."
THE ONLY DIFFERENCE BETWEEN HEAVEN AND HELL IS THIS ONE TINY CHOICE:
"Imagine this scene for a second: A student and a teacher sit silently, when suddenly the student turns and asks, 'What is the difference between heaven and hell?'”...
