Sangha of Auspicious Companions

What Clowns Know About Saying Yes

Natalie Porias never planned to lead an organization of professional clowns working in earthquake zones and hospices — she just Googled “fundraising” and applied for an open internship in that department. Twenty years later, she’s CEO of Red Noses International, and one of her greatest lessons involves a single conjunction: replace “but” with “and,” she says, and watch how the world shifts. In the 2023 rubble of post-earthquake Turkey, sleeping on a bunk bed behind a curtain from three snoring colleagues — a Slovak, a Croatian, and a Palestinian — Natalie watched a clown playing ukulele with a kebab vendor while a small crowd gathered in the ruins. There was no agenda, and no transaction. Later, a woman who had lost her son to a motorcycle accident, and then her family to the earthquake, sat for forty-five minutes engaging with a clowning artist who kept dropping things. “Maybe we can put in a little sparkle,” Natalie says, “so that she feels it’s not all dark.” The clown’s art, she has come to understand, is precisely this: to walk into a room seeing only the human — all while being curious, present, and never judging.

Be The Change

Today, catch yourself about to say “but” in a conversation — with a colleague, a child, a friend — and swap it for “and” instead. Notice what opens up both in the exchange and in yourself.