Until we walk in someone else's shoes, we cannot know their full experience and they in turn cannot know ours. A collaborative understanding and perspective doesn't mean we believe and think exactly the same way as the other person, but it is how we grow and learn from one another. We may not agree on all points, in fact we probably won't, but we can glean a lot from each other as we continue to communicate [...]
I’d like to start by wishing everyone a very happy new year! Clearly, 2023 was a tough one, both in our daily lives and globally. The New Year is often a time to take a break, see friends and family, possibly travel, and to reflect both on this past year, as well as on our hopes for the year to come. We frequently make lists of resolutions for the coming year. One resolution I’m sure to [...]
What is there to say when there is so much disagreement, anger, and fury among us— when people on all sides think they’re right; no, they know they’re right. Trauma breeds more trauma, creating hate, fear, otherness and enemies out of neighbors, friends, and sometimes even family members. It creates brittleness and inflexibility. It tunes out our senses and makes it hard for us to clearly think. Since the brutal events of October 7th visited upon [...]
Eighty years ago this month, in October 1943, 95% of Denmark’s Jewish population was rescued from Nazi-occupied Denmark during the Holocaust, when they were ferried from Denmark to Sweden in a short period of a few days. During this exodus, over seven thousand Danish Jews were saved. This amazing story is one of the most remarkable examples of mass resistance and escape in modern history. It is an important example of resistance, bravery, survival, and community [...]
We all learn that life is unpredictable, and that there has always been trauma in this world, but it usually happens in waves- a hurricane here, a car accident there. These are nothing to write off, the nervous system responds to all traumas, but these days, it feels like the whole world is on fire. We all need to consider the effects of barbarous acts including war on each of us as human beings in thinking [...]
While the color white has typically stood for women’s rights to vote, speak out, and be heard in the political process, Greta Gerwig’s summer smash movie, Barbie, colorized in its multiple hues of pink, makes one wonder if perhaps pink is perhaps the new white, or white’s newest sister. While I saw this movie with my two twenty something year old daughters in early August, I see as of now, (late October), that it’s still actively [...]
I’ve been waiting to write this blog post since a couple of weeks ago when I first heard that the late Sinead O’Conner suddenly passed away at age 56. She was an amazingly gifted and complex individual who screamed out for help through her songs and her actions. Whether you agreed with and understood her cries or not, she had a voice that couldn’t be ignored, and she spoke to millions of people about her pain [...]
Writing to express oneself versus writing a story others want to read can be two very different processes. The first is raw; the second is edited. The path in between is not linear. For me, I began my story with an idea about a self-isolated, ungrounded woman who lives in her head without a sense of where she belongs in the world, except in studying ancient history, anthropology, and archaeology. Her full identity revolves around her [...]
Klara’s Truth is my debut novel, and my first published piece ever, other than an article I wrote for the Medium’s blog Invisible Illness at the beginning of the pandemic. A friend recently asked me if I’ve always been a writer, and I replied, “Actually, no.” He was a bit surprised. I thought back to writing as a kid. I spent much of fourth grade, writing about a girl named Elvira in a black and white [...]