About the Author Leah M. Kalish
Why I wrote this book
For most of my life, I believed strength meant standing firm. I believed resilience was something you built like armor—harder, thicker, more impenetrable with every hardship. I was wrong.
Swaying With the Trees was born from a season when life stripped away nearly everything I thought made me strong. In the quiet that followed, I discovered something I had overlooked all along. True resilience isn't found in resisting life's winds. It's found in learning to move with them while remaining deeply rooted in who you are.
I wrote this book for anyone who has ever believed that bending meant breaking. It doesn't.
The trees know.
Perhaps it's time we remembered.
About Leah
Leah M. Kalish is a writer, storyteller, entrepreneur, and host of the podcast Life Between Coasts, where she sits down with ordinary people to explore the journeys that shape who we become. Through conversations rooted in curiosity, compassion, and shared humanity, she believes our stories often connect us far more than our differences divide us.
Her own journey has been marked by profound loss, chronic illness, unexpected healing, and an enduring search for meaning. After losing her brother in childhood, her mother as a young adult, and later her father, Leah came to understand that resilience is not found in bracing against life's storms, but in learning to bend without breaking.
Professionally, Leah has spent decades serving people through multiple careers — as a real estate broker, tax professional, educator, and business owner — but she has always believed her greatest education has come from listening. Whether sitting across a conference table, behind a podcast microphone, or through the pages of a book, Leah is continually drawn to the stories that remind us of our shared humanity.
Swaying With the Trees is her first book and the beginning of The Human First Philosophy, a 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, cat Jasper, and Franklin, a painted turtle. There she continues writing, recording conversations, and encouraging others to place humanity first.
