Intercalation means putting something into an existing sequence or structure. It is not replacing what is already there, but making room for something to be integrated.

We intercalate time, too. A leap day is an intercalation: one day inserted into a 365-day calendar to keep it aligned with the world it is trying to measure.

This word inspires me because of what I want to share over the next several weeks.

You may associate much of my life’s work with responding to difficult things: illness, trauma, violence, disaster, displacement, and the strain carried by people working in demanding and sometimes high-threat environments. For years, I have had the privilege of supporting organizations and working with people trying to preserve their mental health, wellbeing, and humanity under extraordinary conditions.

I am ready to tell some of those stories and share what they have taught me.

And I will intercalate joy intentionally.

Not to balance the scales. Not to make the hard things easier to digest. And certainly not to suggest that suffering disappears if we pay enough attention to what is good.

I mean something more literal: to intercalate joy, pleasure, laughter, beauty, play, and aliveness as human gifts that can pulsate alongside the difficult things. These are flowers that can grow in seemingly inhospitable places.

So that is what you will see me modeling. A piece about adversity may be followed by something about laughter. A reflection on people struggling in demanding environments may sit next to one about delight or play.

This is not a change of subject. I increasingly think it is the subject.

At a moment when we are asking what parts of human life may change profoundly as artificial intelligence becomes more capable, I find myself increasingly interested in the capacities worth valuing and practicing: our ability to feel, connect, suffer, delight, care, laugh, make meaning, and remain fully alive to one another.

Perhaps part of being fully human is learning what we choose to place in the spaces.

Be well,

Siddharth

Greenleaf Integrative