Natalie Audelo

And across my life of conversation, I have learned that wisdom and wholeness emerge in moments precisely like ours, though ours is writ large, where human beings have to hold seemingly opposing realities in a creative tension and interplay, power and frailty, birth and death, pain and hope, mystery and conviction, brokenness and beauty, calm and... See more

I define a leader as anyone who takes responsibility for finding the potential in people and processes, and who has the courage to develop that potential.

Our social and political divides aren’t just about income brackets or political parties, but about fundamentally different lived realities operating in parallel. A divide that is harder to measure; it must be experienced.

I love tomatoes a little more than I used to because of a poem my best friend wrote. I paint landscapes because that’s what my grandpa on my dad’s side used to paint before arthritis froze his fingers. I love the color blue a little more than I used to because it’s my other best friend’s middle name. I love the spring because my grandpa on my mom’s... See more

At the same time, a crush is beautiful because it’s a little unrealistic, because you see the very best in someone even when they’re flawed. One might argue that even a casual crush is a bit selfish—a way to project positive qualities onto someone, and to get the glowy excitement that comes with that, without really seeing them in all of their... See more

The lesson I learned from this is that it’s easier to hold to your principles 100% of the time than it is to hold to them 98% of the time. If you give in to “just this once,” based on a marginal cost analysis, as some of my former classmates have done, you’ll regret where you end up. You’ve got to define for yourself what you stand for and draw

... See more