Priya Chhaya's Blog

I spent the last three weeks of 2024 in two different countries, far away from the place that I call home. When I returned it was evident that after a year of cultivating the tools of breath and balance there was one more thing I needed to carry in my toolbox—a sense of perspective. 

For many of us this past year was filled with incredible highs and devastating lows. I had ...

Today is Election Day, so naturally I want to talk about ghosts.

But first: 

By the time you see this piece we will be at the start, in the middle, or on the other side of Election Day. We might know the direction our country is heading, we might still be in limbo, or be staring into a world that is unrecognizable. I write this, on some level, to quell my own anxiety. My own fear. My own gnawing worry that even with a win, we will still have lost some essential promise of a more perfect un...

For the last three years I had the honor to serve as a member of the National Council on Public History’s Board of Directors. Elected by my peers I took my seat a year into the COVID-19 pandemic, joining a board that had to make incredibly tough decisions in order to survive as an organization. I knew that it was not going to be an easy term, but after giving my time to the organization in various forms over fifteen years I was determined to be a positive addition to the team.

As much value t...

If there is one thing I have learned about myself in 2023, it is this: change takes time. It is easy to tell yourself that you are ready to refocus your life and build an expectation for those shifts to happen overnight. It is just as easy to fall back into old habits and get caught up in the least important things, forgetting to breathe, or to strive for the balance necessary for well-being.

L...

In April, I stepped into a theater transformed. Gone were the tiers of formal seats dividing the stage from the audience. Instead, I was ushered into a tent holding a ticket marked Kurdistan and led through two countries to a seat on the floor of a raised platform. This was The Jungle, a refugee camp that existed from January 2015-October 2016, in Calais, France.

In May, the seats were back in their seemingly rightful place for a different, yet equally powerful immersive experience. Centered ...

Last year, as I followed discussions about the new film version of Persuasion, I began thinking about how adaptations are really a form of translation. Instead of moving between languages, adaptation brings a story from one form to another.  

For those doing the translating, it can be a fine balance. On one side there are those who love the original source material, who have built a connection to the story, and the heart of the original narrative. On the other hand, going from one medium to a...

In late September 2022, I followed my best friend and her two children through the streets of Möhringen in Stuttgart on a bicycle. As I struggled to stay straight and round corners, I was cognizant of the two children before me weaving in and out of those same street with an adeptness I did not feel. 

You see, memory is an interesting thing. Sometimes you know exactly where you first learned a lesson, and it feels like it should be settled in your mind, something that you retain forever. Afte...

Last year I made a clear choice about how I wanted to approach 2022. I wanted to live. Live without overthinking, live without feeling scared, live without taking a (reasonable) risk.  And so I traveled, I celebrated turning forty, I made some big decisions about what I wanted out of my life going forward. I had some unexpected experiences that forced me to adapt, change, and approach relationships and the status quo in a different way. I wrote 50,000 words for a novel I continue to dream about....

There’s a video of me in 2018 walking along the edge of the Grand Canyon in Nevada and I can not stop laughing. I sound almost giddy, with uncontrollable giggles accompanied by a lot of exclamatory, somewhat coherent phrases.

I do not know if that is everyone’s reaction to seeing the glory of this natural wonder, but I can attest ...

                                                                                                                     August 2022

Hello Friend, 

I know that you’ve been with me every hour, every minute, and every moment of the last ten years, but I hope when you re-read these words at the turn of your half-century on this Earth, that they make you smile.

You probably remember how, two weeks before our fortieth birthday, I cracked open a fortune cookie to find the words “You will soon be ...