Maria Potoroczyn

Making things is hard and I feel like that’s the most useful thing to say about it. You have to try to be consistent, you have to practice constantly, you have to read, and you can’t make yourself be interested in topics you aren’t interested in. And you have to accept that it’s always going to be challenging. My friend said this about her work, wh... See more

Nature has designed various rhythms and cycles. Your heartbeat consists of contraction and recovery. Animals hibernate and migrate according to the season. Sproutlings and plants rest during the winter before shooting out again in spring. Some plants, such as Proteas, have seeds with hard shells that require mortality—the heat from fire—to break op... See more

Everything I’ve experienced in my life thus far has been my purpose, and that a sense of purpose is no further away than the next inhale or blink. This revelation was a relief. I felt myself put down the weight of needing absolute clarity on life direction and certainty that I’m doing the right things.

There’s no way to get any of this wrong.

"The

... See more

I spent many years telling myself that if I try hard enough and am a talented person, than I should be able to thrive in the work culture that surrounded me—that fast-paced, extroverted, competitive, hard core, pedal to the metal, go-big-or-go-home culture. A failure to thrive there was clearly my own failure to hack it in the world, a failure of e... See more

You can love your kids deeply and hate being a mom. You can hold your children to the bone and still proclaim how sucky it is to be a female parent, in America at least, with our lack of paid family leave or high-quality day care and the cultural insistence that “good women” should stake their entire lives on the opportunity.

As we leave the stadiums and movie theaters and parking lots, as with the best gatherings, we begin to wonder: if it was possible here, where else might we create anew?

A large percentage of people’s problems in work, love and life are due to some combination of vagueness and passivity. You don’t know what you want to spend your time on; you don’t know what kind of person you really get along with; you don’t know what kind of clothing looks good to you; you don’t know what you value in a city; you don’t know how t... See more