"Speak your mind, even if your voice shakes." This quote, attributed to a social activist named Maggie Kuhn, has always been a personal favorite encouraging reminder. If we have a conviction... a stirring of our heart... a passionate belief, why can it still be so hard to speak out? To share our minds, hearts, words?… Continue reading Grace for the Voices
Author: aliveawakeuncomfortable
Feel how you feel
Dear 13yo: The world will throw a lot of stuff at you, and ask you to smile anyway. Feel how you feel. You'll be asked to tone down your responses and smooth over and buff out your frustration. Feel how you feel. You'll be asked to lower your voice, censor your heart, be "a lady."… Continue reading Feel how you feel
Fears of
Betraying my principles. Betraying myself. Going backwards. Trying and failing. Forgetting who I am. Other people's standards. My standards. Conditional love. Buying into lies. Being stuck. Voicing this. Not voicing this. Being uncomfortable. Staying uncomfortable. Ya feel me?
Burn baby burn
My girl, a new 13 years of age, is hurting. It's not heartbreak. Or friend frustrations. Or the all-consuming emotional pain of teen angst. Those things will undoubtedly come. But today, it's a bad sunburn, and it happened quickly. Owwwww. Mama wanna fix this. It came from a great afternoon of playing in Lake Michigan… Continue reading Burn baby burn
Sitting in the Suck
I find myself, tonight, in a MOOD. It's actually been here for much of the day too, truthfully. It's been a hella rainy, everyone at home, too much misdirected energy kind of day. And this low... aggravated... frustrated... impatient mood is just here to visit. And I find myself trying, trying TRYING to resist it.… Continue reading Sitting in the Suck
Is the answer to simply “leave Britney alone”?
Is Britney being mistreated and exploited?Probably, yes.Does she need help to manage her life and issues?Probably, yes. I listened to her whole statement. I hear her frustration, anger, overwhelm, and relief in finally speaking honestly and in being heard. I hear her state she's depressed, traumatized, unable to sleep, cries constantly, and can't trust anyone.… Continue reading Is the answer to simply “leave Britney alone”?
Say YES to the Mess!
Over quarantine and this last year+ of "pandemicness", our normally messy house has had the chance to become RIDICULOUSLY entrenched in mess. Clutter that would normally get cleared after a few days has evolved into seemingly semi-permanent structures and piles. (Only "semi" because it occasionally falls over if it gets high enough.) A messy side-of-my… Continue reading Say YES to the Mess!
Getting with the ‘Gram
Have you ever seen those posts exposing the pains behind the perfect Insta pictures? The lengths someone will go to in order to curate the perfect image/aesthetic to post can truly be incredible, if not amusing to someone like me who basically only dabbles in filtering her pictures of everyday life. But people - celebrities… Continue reading Getting with the ‘Gram
Re-calibrating my Gut
I'm a feeler, but I'm also a thinker. There have been times in my life where I experience life more in one mode than the other, but I also don't see myself all-too detached from either. When I've taken the Myers-Briggs, I have always landed on the "F" side of the third dichotomy. This means… Continue reading Re-calibrating my Gut
Some Body to Love
It dawns on me that I could probably, given the right mindset or motivation, write post after post about the discomfort that comes from our experiences as humans with bodies. Ugh, bodies. Like it or not, we're all bound to them. They're an integral part of our human experience. And while bodies can surely be… Continue reading Some Body to Love
alive. awake. uncomfortable. 