Playground at the Edge

Brazilian jiu-jitsu, play, and sacrificial risk

This episode is about what we lose when we learn to play nice — and what it costs to go back for it. It begins on a public stage, with a six-year-old dancer who has no idea she's supposed to be nervous. It ends on a jiu-jitsu mat, soaked in other people's sweat, giggling inside a choke. In between: a trailhead sign in Ithaca, a vow, eighteen months of guaranteed defeat, and the slow arrival of something that can only be forged in the body — fierceness, tenderness, and sacrificial risk of giving yourself to something you can't yet see. This piece explores rough and tumble play as a crucible, sacrificial risk as a doorway, and the capacities waiting on the other side of the tap. Read the full piece and explore the Playground at the Edge: https://playgroundattheedge.substack.com [https://playgroundattheedge.substack.com] This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit playgroundattheedge.substack.com [https://playgroundattheedge.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

On dust, development, and the animating intelligence beneath it all

This episode is an origin story. It begins in 1981, on a dark purple velvet couch, with a three-year-old who suddenly becomes aware of a world between worlds. It ends in the forest, at the river, and in the quality of presence two people can create together when a meeting remakes them. In between: a homeless shelter in Boston, a classroom in Denver, birth work, yoga, acrobatics, somatic sexology, mountains, deserts, oceans, and — finally — the discovery that an entire field exists devoted to how adults continue to grow and develop across the lifespan. This piece names the roots and seeds of the Playground at the Edge — the thinkers, traditions, and lived experiences that inform the writing and coaching found here. You'll find echoes of Maria Montessori, Robert Kegan, Bill Torbert, Susanne Cook-Greuter, and the ancient Greek and Tantric philosophical traditions that have attempted to name what lives underneath all of it. The theoretical lives in the background here. But it points somewhere worth following. Read the full piece and explore the Playground at the Edge [https://playgroundattheedge.substack.com/].https://playgroundattheedge.substack.com/ [https://playgroundattheedge.substack.com/]Coaching: https://playgroundattheedge.substack.com/p/coaching [https://playgroundattheedge.substack.com/p/coaching]If something here landed, share it with someone who might appreciate it. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit playgroundattheedge.substack.com [https://playgroundattheedge.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

Communion as practice. Aliveness as signal.

What would it mean to stop managing your life from a distance — and start actually living it? This episode introduces the practice at the heart of the Playground at the Edge: communion. Not the religious kind — but the kind that happens when something outside you calls something inside you forward. When a conversation becomes a meeting. When light through trees stops you cold. When laughter ignites something chemical and you arrive, suddenly, more fully in your own body. Communion is an inner movement that happens in relationship with the outer world. It can arrive as a gift. It can also be cultivated deliberately. Aliveness is the signal. This episode explores what communion is, why it matters, and what may be at stake when it goes absent from our lives. It ends with your first invitation inside the Playground — a simple practice you can do today. Read the full piece and explore the Playground at the Edge [https://playgroundattheedge.substack.com/].https://playgroundattheedge.substack.com/ [https://playgroundattheedge.substack.com/]Coaching: https://playgroundattheedge.substack.com/p/coaching [https://playgroundattheedge.substack.com/p/coaching]If something here landed, share it with someone who might appreciate it. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit playgroundattheedge.substack.com [https://playgroundattheedge.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]