About Swaying With the Trees

For most of my life, I believed strength meant standing firm. I thought resilience was like armor, growing harder, thicker, and more impenetrable with every hardship. I was wrong.

Swaying With the Trees emerged from a season of loss, illness, healing, and unexpected change, when life stripped away nearly everything I thought defined my strength.

In the silence that followed, I discovered something I had overlooked all along. True resilience is not found in resisting life’s winds. It is found in learning to move with them while remaining deeply rooted in who you are.

I wrote this book for anyone learning to navigate change and anyone who has ever felt that bending meant breaking.

It doesn’t.

The trees have always understood this. Perhaps it is time we remembered.

Leah M. Kalish is a writer, storyteller, entrepreneur, and host of the podcast Life Between Coasts, where she has honest conversations with ordinary people about the experiences that shape who we are and who we are becoming. Grounded in curiosity, compassion, and shared humanity, her work reflects a simple belief: our stories connect us far more than our differences divide us.

Her first book, Swaying With the Trees, marks the beginning of The Human First Philosophy, a growing body of work exploring resilience, authenticity, connection, and alignment in a world that increasingly needs all four.

Leah lives in Michigan with her Mister, their dog Monty, their cat Jasper, and Franklin the painted turtle. 

She continues to write, record conversations, follow the universe whispers, and encourage others to put humanity first.