• Inspiration

    Shock

    I’m heartbroken. I’m in shock. I was sure she was going to win. I didn’t believe for a second that there were that many people who were angry enough to vote for him. I live in Lee County. I saw the signs and bumper stickers, but then I’d talk to people at the gym, in the store, in my neighborhood and hear kindness, not anger.

  • Inspiration

    Love

    Love. I stopped at the vet to pick up Roscoe and Smudge’s heart and flea meds. My mind raced with everything on my to-do list. The line to check-out was long. I waited. That’s when an open door caught my attention. A metal table. A towel. A tiny brown body lying still.

  • Inspiration

    From Chub Chubs to Daddy Long Legs

    I barely had a chance to form an opinion about my body before one was imposed on me. When you understand where your beliefs come from only then can you change them. The Very Beginning Fat! was bad. Very bad. This was the message I received before elementary school. There were several significant events from those early years that helped shape my view of my body and expectations of being female. After all, it really was okay for men to be overweight. They didn’t go on diets. It was the women who had to be slim. Men never complained about their bodies–only women did. But why? Was it because they felt…

  • Teaching

    Help Girls Find Their Voice

    I watch it happening before my inquisitive eyes. Girls sitting in a middle school classroom silent, unwilling to speak up when they know the answer, unwilling to correct the boys when it’s obvious they’re frustrated with the continuous outbursts or immature fart noises. They sit there. They follow. Some giggle. Why?

  • Inspiration,  Teaching

    Joy

    I sat on the couch with two pups at my feet. They needed to go on a long walk after waiting all day for me to return from teaching. There were dishes in the sink, laundry, emails to answer, words to write for this blog and for my new novel. I felt like I had just run a marathon and could sleep until morning. I’ve always said there’s no tired like teaching tired. But my pups wanted two things, to be with me and to walk. I laughed to myself thinking they were my priority–one of the vocabulary words I had explained to the 6th graders. One side effect from teaching is…