Note: I am writing this article from my perspective of the holiday season, which is very Christmas-centric. Having said that, I believe that at least some of these hints can be applied to other holiday celebrations. The holidays are promoted, to an almost obnoxious level, as being a time of great joy and merriment. Families come around, delicious food is eaten, presents are … [Read more...]
Unhappy Holidays?: 3 Things To Remember About Your Holiday Depression
After my mother died, every supposedly joyous occasion had a pall thrown over it. Without her, it was hard to celebrate. Without her, everything felt empty. When my father-in-law lost his mother (my husband's grandmother) just a month before the holidays last year, I understood, in my own way, a bit of what he and his siblings would endure. Each time I witness someone losing a … [Read more...]
#CloseTheCamps: No 4th of July While Children Die
On July 2nd, I participated in a #CloseTheCamps rally demanding that the illegal concentration camps for undocumented children and their families -- with 71% of migrants being held in for-profit facilities as of November 2017 -- be shut down. I stood on the sidewalk of a local park with about 60 other protesters as we held signs and rattled noisemakers, chanting and begging our … [Read more...]
Resisting Fear: What Being Jewish Means in an Age of Rising Anti-Semitism
When I was growing up, being Jewish meant to me that we ate challah on Friday nights, put on a Purim play once a year (in which I always got to play Queen Esther), and lit Hanukkah candles while the Christmas tree gleamed in the other room. I loved learning about Jewish history, reading the stories, and celebrating the holidays with all their delicious food. Synagogue was a … [Read more...]
The Secret Cult of Loneliness
This article was originally published for PowellsBooks.org and is reprinted by permission from the writer. I have the distinct feeling I am not supposed to write this. As if by virtue of my melanin I have been contractually bound to an unspoken creed, the first two rules of Black Woman Fight Club: Rule #1: We do not talk about being lonely. Rule #2: We DO NOT talk about being … [Read more...]
Surviving the Holidays With Sensory Processing Disorder
Five years ago, I wedged myself into a town car with two fistfuls of luggage and settled into my seat next to my parents. My palms were drenched with sweat, I was unusually clad in comfortable velveteen sleep pants, and I was headed into the middle of New York City rush hour traffic to get to the airport. To take a flight. At night. Overnight. For days leading up to this trip … [Read more...]
Holiday Stress: Five Ways to Manage the Chaos That Comes With the Holidays
With the coming dark, my own body shifts into a cycle of down time. As someone who celebrates the shifting of the yearly cycle, I’ve learned to let myself flow with them. When winter comes, I hibernate and it’s okay. But hibernating is hard with the rush of the holiday season. There’s just so much to celebrate, along with so much to do. In the last couple of days alone, I … [Read more...]
What I’ve Learned About Myself and the Holidays, and Why I’m More Thankful
Like many people, I’m mid-journey. Not only am I working my way past hazards and potholes in my holiday season, but I'm also in the process of making my way fully to unconditional, unapologetic love for myself. Like a lot of people, I find that the holidays compound the dangers and detours that I feel I need to be watchful of. Over the last few years, I’ve become … [Read more...]
Own Your Sh*t: 5 Ways To Navigate Your Partner’s Wealth During the Holidays
The holidays are emotionally challenging for many reasons, but they take on a unique toll on working-class folks who end up in relationships with a partner who comes from a middle or upper-class background. As someone who grew up relatively poor with a single-mom who is currently under-employed, I have a complicated relationship to Christmas, but that became all the more … [Read more...]
Don’t Just Rest – HALT to Get Through Difficult Days
This piece first appeared on the website, Rest for Resistance, and is reprinted here by permission. I fight suicidal depression every year. I owe my success in this fight to an acronym a Black psychologist named Dr. Vernon Savage taught me while I was a struggling undergrad. HALT stands for never get too Hungry, Angry, Lonely, or Tired. I’m … [Read more...]
5 Undeniable Reasons We Need To Talk About Christian Privilege
When I was four years old, my parents moved me from Los Angeles to northern Idaho, where I would live for thirteen years—plus a year-long stint in heavily Mormon Utah during first grade—until I moved away to New England for college. During this time, I was exposed to a poor and working-class, white-dominated culture in which evangelical Christianity was the reigning religion, … [Read more...]
The Price of Polyamory: Intentional Families, Too Many In-Laws, and Loving Support
We’re off to a wedding. I love weddings. Love ‘em, even though I already know I’ll start crying at the bridal march. Like many weddings, this one will be a heady mixture of joyous celebration spiked with massive logistical angst and the usual smattering of unforeseen hiccups--fodder, no doubt, for anecdotes at family reunions in the years to come. But instead of the … [Read more...]
