Standing in my bathroom, I peer down at the flesh protruding over the top of my athletic shorts. It looks like a dimpled loaf of unbaked bread, or maybe a doubled-over baguette. Whitish and smooth, it rises as I breathe. I poke at it, and it jiggles a bit. As if it thinks itself to be Jolly. Continue reading Bellyfat
There are so many divided camps of belief and opinion these days.people are being very loud and very FIRM in their stance, often to the extreme of attacking or shunning those whose views differ from their own.
What if, instead of reacting with my ego, I tuned into my spiritual self? Continue reading Connect. Listen. Love.
The thing about kids is that you don’t need a license or certification or even good intentions in order to have one. You just do this (rather animalistic) act and then -BOOM- less than a year later you are the proud owner of a fragile, flailing, extremely loud, real, live human…innately designed to scream the moment you close your eyes or sit down with a hot cup of coffee. Sure, there’s care and feeding instructions out there, but the disclaimer on every one is that if you get it wrong you will mess them up for life. Continue reading Now What? (parenting without the manual)
Happy birthday to this young and blundering country I call home. Today I celebrate one of my favorite holidays with pause and uncertainty. It seems we Americans have forgotten how to have compassion, respect, and empathy for one another. Continue reading July 4, 2020
All this shit has got me riddled with anxiety. I feel this constant simmering inside as I try to navigate my family through this changing world each day. Am I doing the right thing? Will my children be safe? …too sheltered? …too exposed? Continue reading I’m tired of being afraid
Violence against POC at the hands of police and people in power is only once piece of this problem: a symptom, really, of the larger underlying culture of systemic racism and white privilege here in the U.S. Many white people that I know, myself included, are wringing our hands wondering what we can do to show support for BLM and shift the tide of increasing violence towards Black citizens.I think we can start by turning those fingers we are pointing at police and politicians back towards ourselves: Looking inward at how growing up in a society fueled by systemic racism has influenced our core beliefs towards POC. How may YOU as a white person have contributed to this ongoing disparity in our country? Continue reading Part II: I cannot be silent, continued.
I am white.I have never been black.Black people, I can say that I understand, I sympathize, I empathize, I stand with you; but because I am white, I can never truly do these things. I live in my world of white privilege. Perhaps I have a clearer picture than some because of my years of teaching in urban, primarily African-American, schools, which allowed me to know and care about young black teenagers in a way most white people will never have the opportunity to. But I have never lived in black skin. Continue reading I cannot be silent (response to May 25, 2020)
I have been sinking. I am physically embodying the effects of this time of isolation and the resulting depression. I have zits; I am gaining weight; I feel tired and irritated all the time.After my meditation this morning, I asked my unicorn cards for some guidance (as I occasionally do when I feel stuck or lost). I shuffled and shrugged as I cut the deck one final time to reveal my card: ANGER Continue reading Anger
I hoped this mysterious mountain hike would offer my son some respite from the monotony of home and the pressures of eLearning. What it ultimately gave him was much more powerful than that. Continue reading Up and Down the Mountain
“uhhhh…Why do I have to DO this?” moaned my 6-year-old son as he melted off the desk chair, hanging sideways, arms flailed. After the most recent painful morning of begging and coercing my son to sit in front of the computer and feign interest in any sort of school work, I decided I needed a paradigm shift. Continue reading Why do I have to do this?
