by Emily Branden | May 28, 2026 | Uncategorized
I keep telling my students I never thought I’d have to practice yoga this hard. I never thought I’d be walking, this often what I preach, fighting to stay inspired daily. I don’t know how you’re keeping it together—but I do know music saves, performance heals, and...
by Emily Branden | Dec 1, 2025 | Uncategorized
Somehow I always cry on planes. Picked out of the hustle and shot up into thin air—it is here my heart can hear. My Aunt Patti died this past fall. And it may seem ordinary and inevitable except she was my hero. She taught me grace, how to hold myself as a woman...
by Emily Branden | Jul 6, 2025 | Uncategorized
Lately, I’ve been watering the weeds. The plan was to create a fairy garden this year. With hollyhocks and other wild flowers, I was told to toss in bed above soil—they’ll be up by July… There are tiny ceramic mushrooms standing watch, and solar balls that flick on I...
by Emily Branden | Apr 5, 2025 | Uncategorized
Go to the Poets—Listen to music, read Kerouac, recite Shakespeare. Plant Something—A garden, some Hollyhocks, a tiny succulent, watch it grow. Sing Often—In your car, in the shower, in a band. Move Your Body—While breathing, dance, walk, swim…most days. Write Your...
by Emily Branden | Nov 25, 2024 | Uncategorized
I don’t know when we started feeling so far from each other, but the news suggests humanity is over. On my paddle board in the Pacific Ocean, life is calm, with an occasional rolling wave to lean into, surf, and trust. This morning ritual provides perspective...
by Emily Branden | Jan 15, 2024 | Uncategorized
I don’t know what’s going on these days. But somewhere around Barstow a colleague called to inform me one of my dearest friends had died. Died? But, I just texted her last week. I mean, not saw her, or shared a meal with her… But texted. Because I was busy, I...
by Emily Branden | Sep 18, 2023 | Uncategorized
My cousin’s Saguaro went down. Sixty mile an hour winds while he watched it sway in record heat temperatures. I arrived the next night, only to squint on his iPhone at the damage during a recent Arizona storm. It was the centerpiece of his Fountain Hills home,...
by Emily Branden | Apr 9, 2023 | Uncategorized
Leaving W. San left me in a state of shock. And like shock goes—I didn’t notice until I stared at the walls of my temporary spot on Marcy. East Marcy. A bit fancy for my past sixteen years down on West San Francisco Street. “End of an era…” friends chimed...
by Emily Branden | Oct 18, 2022 | Uncategorized
They say the hardest things in life, the things that almost break you are what make you. Driving twenty miles outside Scottsdale, Arizona late August and still 100 degrees, I listened to Matthew McConaughey’s book on tape. Seconding my belief in...
by Emily Branden | Oct 4, 2021 | Uncategorized
It’s been a life of catching up on summer. And Hemingway, and sunsets, and the way the light hits the pool and turns purple before dark. A season of camping and teaching in public again, and singing—on the lawn at el Rey, and Cowgirl patio, and listening to friends...
