🦋 The Friday Flutter 🦋

July 17, 2026

Dear Belonging~
Sometimes it feels like I am alone in this world.
That nobody truly gets it.
They might know me,
But they don't see me.
There are times you make me actively seek out
What I'm looking for in other people.
Other times, you place them in my life
When I need them most.
Because of you, I can be vulnerable.
I can be my raw, authentic, messy, beautiful self
And not worry about the consequences.
With you around,
I am seen.
I am safe.
I am home.
Thank you, Belonging.
Love, ~Me

I wrote this poem earlier this week alongside teachers in the Dominican Republic who are changing the lives of 96 children living in an orphanage in La Romana as part of their fellowship with the Yinsa Foundation.

I was leading a professional development workshop entitled "Befriending Our Emotions Through Poetry." Somewhere between the writing prompts and the sharing circle, something started to crack open.

The Superhero You Didn't Know You Were

Here is something we don't talk about enough: we spend so much of our lives running from our emotions. The uncomfortable ones. The inconvenient ones. The ones that show up uninvited and refuse to leave.

Anxiety. Loneliness. Grief. Shame.

We label them "negative" and treat them like problems to be solved, symptoms to be managed, feelings to be overcome. But what if that framing is exactly backwards?

My first poetry collection, To All the Magic in Me: A Collection of Love Letters to All of Life's Emotions, was born from a simple but radical premise: what if we invited our difficult emotions in rather than pushing them away? What if we personified them, sat with them, and asked them what they were trying to tell us? The 61 poems in that collection are love letters to all of our emotions, including those we have been taught to hide.

The book grew out of my own mental health journey. As a neurodivergent person who has navigated anxiety and depression, I know what it means to equate your self-worth with your performance. To feel like your emotions are a liability rather than a signal. I know what it means to be hospitalized for a panic attack in college and to wonder whether you will ever feel like yourself again. I also know what it means to discover coping tools, build self-awareness, and eventually become an advocate for others who are still in the thick of it.

Yesterday, I shared all of that with the teachers—the raw, honest, unpolished truth of it. When I finished, one of the teachers responded, "I really appreciate your being vulnerable."

Those words stayed with me.

What It Means to Lead

The children in La Romana are spending their summer exploring what it means to be a superhero. Meanwhile, as I sat with their teachers, I found myself asking the same question I have lately been grappling with: What does it mean to show up as a leader?

Over 25 years—serving on student councils, running an international nonprofit, training emerging leaders, and now stepping into my role at Yinsa—my answer has evolved.

As a member of my middle school student council, I thought leadership was about projecting confidence, having the answers, being the most optimistic and charismatic person in the room, and mobilizing everyone around you into positive action. There is some truth in that, but it is an incomplete picture.

Real leadership, I have come to believe, is about authenticity. It is about bringing your whole self—your expertise and your uncertainty, your vision and your wounds—into every room you enter. It is about knowing when to lead and when to follow. It is about being self-reflective enough to recognize your own limitations and courageous enough to lean on your team to fill them.

Most of all, it is about modeling humanity. When a leader shows up as a full human being—messy, evolving, and unafraid of their own emotions—they give everyone around them permission to do the same. They create what’s called psychological safety: the conditions under which people can take risks, speak honestly, and bring their best selves to the work.

The children in La Romana are learning that superheroes are not defined by their powers. They are defined by their courage, their heart, and their willingness to show up even when it is hard.

So are we.

This Week's Practice

Choose one emotion you have been avoiding lately—something uncomfortable that keeps knocking at the door. Write it a letter. You don't have to share it with anyone. Just let it exist on the page.

Notice what it says back.

Until next Friday, keep fluttering!

With Love and Light,
~Pavita 🦋