Community Art: Distance

Submitted by Marie Sigrid, Mother of 1 in MA

Community Post: Mine to Keep

The first smile, the milk drunk smile, the side smile, the is that a smile?, the half smile, the full gum smile. It’s all about the newborn smiles. They are all mine to keep. But of all the smiles the dream smile has captured my soul, it is untouched, untarnished and pure. I can’t remember…

Community Post: From the Desk of a High School Teacher

Being a teacher has never been easy and the career has lost a lot of the respect it once held decades ago.  Since March 13, 2020, educators have been on the world’s worst, longest rollercoaster.  First we were heroes and then we were doing too much or not enough or maybe “nothing” at all.  Then…

Little Victories

Expecting the world from others almost ten months into a pandemic is probably an expectation we need to adjust if we haven’t already. (Okay, maybe we need to adjust that in non-pandemic times too.) More importantly, we should probably stop expecting the world of ourselves. Am I saying that we should expect nothing or worse…

Community Post: Self-Doubt

I work in child and adolescent mental health as a crisis interventionist and mental health liaison to schools and therapists. In nearly six years of working with children and their families and supports, I’ve met with hundreds of young people and consulted on thousands of cases.  Working with guardians of children at risk of mental…

My Shark Tank Pitch

Hello Sharks! You can stop right there. You can shut this all down because today, I bring you, without exaggeration, the single greatest idea ever.  How many times, as a parent, have you been one foot out the door at bedtime, or just about to leave for work, or stepping out for a jog, and…

Community Post: Space

“I’M. NOT. GOING. TO. WRITE. ANYTHING!” screams my first grader. We are an hour into virtual schooling, month 5. My half-time job waits for me to get to it at some point later today. When that will be kind of depends on how long this yelling marathon lasts. My part-time temporary teaching gig starts in…

Video Clip: What Have You Let Go Of?

Video Clip: “If I Should Have a Daughter”

TED Talk by Sarah Kay

It Won’t Always Be This Hard

(Originally written on March 23, 2020… sharing on January 4, 2021 because it’s still very relevant nine months into the pandemic.) Dear Self, Do you remember this feeling? I think you will recall once you reflect. Twelve [34] weeks ago, you knew what your job entailed, and you excelled at it. Your team, customers and…