Food For Thought Tidbit №5 (A Thanksgiving Special) It took me a long time to find joy in Thanksgiving again. For years it was a visceral reminder of all that had been lost. But over time, a great deal of time, I picked up certain traditions that I had been unable to separate from my sadness and rediscovered their joy, remix style. Like everything in life, traditions are subject to time. With every passing generation, change is inevitable. But when tradition is, at its core, about gratitude, love, and belonging, it becomes less about the how and more about the why.

The stigma and disregard for our mental health is both a global emergency and an individual dilemma. — I stood on the corner of State and Magnolia staring down at the little coin purse in my hands. It still brandished the price tag on its vinyl front. As if emblazoned with a scarlet letter, the handwritten price was plain for all to see — $12. I couldn’t spend $12 on a coin purse I didn’t even like that much!

Food For Thought Tidbit №4 — It’s one thing to feel free to be who we are. It’s another thing entirely to act on whatever impulse catches our attention at the time. That’s called petulance. I’m tired of the perspective that states, “people should feel entitled to do what they want, how they want, when they…

Food For Thought Tidbit №3 — We’re so overly concerned about standing out that we’ve forgotten the value of coming together. Finding common ground is undervalued. Compassion for like-minded people is easy. Kindness for “other” is hard, but worth the effort. Waiting for us, on the other side of our perceived differences, are depth and connection. …

Learning how to resist our biological drive to pass judgement in a hollow attempt to find ourselves. — “The real difficulty is to overcome how you think about yourself.” ~ Maya Angelou If there were one person’s opinion that you should pay attention to, it would be your own. Our efforts to appear a certain way to the outside world are a waste of energy. …

If you knew you would die tomorrow, would you care about your Medium income today? When did writing become something we did for money? When did it stop being enough to have a sympathetic ear? When did writing stop being an art form, and become a hustle? …

Who knew? — It’s hard to watch our children struggle, even when we can recognize our own struggles as our sources of strength. As a mom, I can’t help but worry, “this is it. This is the one that’ll break him.” But he’s more resilient than I give him credit. His growl may be loud, complaining and feigning inevitable death by embarrassment or failure. …