At my agency’s annual fundraiser, I shared a story that I’ve kept private over this past year that I’d like to share with you now. I originally decided to keep it private because I was so struck by the darkness and the cruelty of it that it didn’t feel necessary to allow it to touch […]
Posts Tagged ‘healing’
I Might Believe…
Posted: 3rd November 2022 by admin in BlogTags: #believeinmagic, #findingjoy, #LGBT youth, #transgender, #transsanta, community, healing
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A Mouse’s Tale
Posted: 11th October 2021 by admin in BlogTags: book signing, healing, kindness, National Coming Out Day, NCOD
Shout out to First Congregational Church in Naperville for their local authors series, to which Urban Tidepool was invited last evening. I met some wonderful new folks and got to talk through the book with a few of my pod and with Reverend Mark Winters, who is one of the coolest guys to ever rock […]
Cresting Gently
Posted: 27th May 2018 by admin in BlogTags: aging, grief work, healing, lifespan, Mother's Day, motherless daughters, mothers, personal growth
A yahrzeit candle burns on my counter today, a gesture borrowed from my fabulous former spouse’s traditions and one to which I have gotten quite attached. Today is the 45th anniversary of the mother’s crossing. As I’ve aged, the tumult of this day has diminished and now it more likely and more often leaves me […]
In the Presence of Great Spirit
Posted: 26th February 2018 by admin in BlogTags: #LGBT youth, family, healing, leadership, love
A chapter from Urban Tidepool 2008 I wasn’t looking for a new site to set up another drop-in center. I already had enough to do without adding one more program. But when I was asked to apply for a foundation grant that would allow us to do just that and hire a program manager, I […]
The Un-Spirit of Christmas
Posted: 17th December 2017 by admin in BlogTags: Christmas, family, family of choice, grief work, healing, holiday traditions, holidays
There is no time of the year that I am as aware of my shortage of family of origin as I am at the holidays. This is what some of us were raised with, right? Holidays are about family. Old songs extoll traveling long miles over snowy roads to be with family for that special […]
Of Superhero Capes and Chemo
Posted: 9th April 2017 by admin in BlogTags: cancer, chemo, friendship, grief, healing, superheros, warrior women
I met one of my favorite people when she was just finishing up chemo for breast cancer. She was interested in volunteering at the agency where I work, and we met to talk about the jobs that volunteers were doing and the time commitment that might be involved. I’ve mentioned this before in other blog […]
Daring Crustaceans and Other Adventurers
Posted: 2nd November 2016 by admin in BlogTags: #support, courage, death, grief, healing, vulnerability
November 2, 2016 Five years ago this afternoon, I was at a local middle school speaking about LGBT youth and their developmental process. Earlier in the day, I’d learned that a former intern, my very first intern at Youth Outlook—Brian– had died, only 24 hours after learning about the death of one of the drop-in […]
Emotional Styptic Pencil Needed on Aisle 3
Posted: 11th May 2016 by admin in BlogTags: #LGBT youth, Brene Brown, emotional abuse, gender, healing, shame, trans youth
Over the weekend, I read some of Brene Brown’s older book, Daring Greatly. It’s always a toss up as to which lens her words will register through first for me, personally or professionally. Sometimes, it’s both. During this reading, I found myself hooked on her ideas about shame being gender based, and both sets of […]