Earlier this summer, I had covid and slowed to a snail’s pace. Everyday care (like bathing and brushing) took incredible effort. Because I had such little energy, I had to make tough decisions about where to put that energy. In many ways, being sick provided time for review. That review clarified my commitments, helping me consider if where I’m directing energy is truly where I want to be putting it. For the most part, I could answer: yes. I am clear about my deepest ... Read more ...
commitments
Q&A with David Luis Glisch-Sánchez: Life Coaching as Restoring Wholeness
This interview with David Luis Glisch-Sánchez, Ph.D. shares how life coaching aligns with living for justice. Recently, David launched Soul Support Life Coaching with focuses on healing and restoring wholeness. I’ve been really excited to witness David share the vision for this work, build the business framework, and begin to offer coaching and workshops. David is a sociologist who has spent years both doing self-work and studying how others heal “to make whole,” ... Read more ...
Continuing to Respond to the Supreme Court’s Decision Overturning Roe
Dear Beloved Reader, I began this post during Friday’s writing group, where I was when the Supreme Court released the Dobbs decision—overturning Roe v. Wade, restricting legal abortion access, and undercutting reproductive justice. I felt held in deep companionship through the news. And I remain incredibly grateful for activist-educator-writer-friend-colleagues who show up in the world with commitment and care. Now, more than ever, I feel the need for community—for ... Read more ...
Reframing Burnout and Recognizing the Collective Experience
Today, I have a new article published in Inside Higher Ed: “Honoring Ourselves and Each Other Through Burnout.” Here’s the opening: In the past few months, nearly all my conversations have focused on burnout. One friend is running on fumes, another wonders how to keep teaching when her body says no and still another rattles off a near-endless list of what’s not getting done. Such stories are nearly endless, too. The recent Inside Higher Ed opinion piece “Academe, Hear ... Read more ...
Small-Group Coaching: Aligning Career with Commitments
This summer I’m hoping to try something new: small-group coaching focused on career discernment. After several years of facilitating “Career Discernment for Academics: Aligning Career with Commitments,” I’m reflecting on how career discernment can be a lonely experience. This is true even while many people are experiencing similar frustrations and asking similar questions. How do we shift time toward priorities? How do we navigate unjust workplace conditions? How do we ... Read more ...
Microaggressions: Too Sanitized, Too Safe, and Too Small?
I’m grateful to share a new article: “Do We Really Understand Microaggressions?” which is published online with Ms. Magazine. This piece is co-authored with Rasha Diab and part of our ongoing research on countering microaggressions. Here’s the opening: In recent years and especially since summer 2020, in the aftermath and reckoning of George Floyd’s murder, the term “microaggression” has become commonplace. Every week, new stories highlight racial microaggressions in ... Read more ...
Commitment Statements: Questions and Answers Pointing Toward Action
Commitment statements are living documents: a way to clarify deep dedications and priorities and to make them actionable both in everyday life and for the long haul. For several years now, I’ve been working with commitment statements as a way to better understand my own commitments and where I’m out of alignment with them—and, importantly, to realign and strive toward justice. This work has grown out of my collaborative research on “Making Commitments to Racial Justice ... Read more ...
Journaling and Drawing Exercises for Times of Transition
Recently, a Patreon subscriber wrote to me with the following question: Could you share a few journaling or drawing exercises to help find focus/calm/mindfulness during a time of big transition and change? I found myself nodding when reading this question, reflecting on how much feels in flux for me as well. As we’re heading into the third year of the pandemic, we continue to live with a lot of unknowns and uncertainty, a lot of change asked of us regularly, and a lot of ... Read more ...
New Year Reflections: Hanging by a Thread Is Better Than No Thread at All
In these weeks leading up to the new year—during the holidays and covid surge—I’ve found myself saying, “I’m hanging by a thread.” And friends have reminded me that one thread is better than no threads at all. It’s true. I’ve witnessed spiders suspended in air by a single thread. I’ve seen them descend to the ground gracefully with that same thread and use it as a first step to rebuilding webs. (Spiders teach me a lot!) As we welcome the new year, I’m reminding myself ... Read more ...
Grief and Gratitude: Reflections on a 3-Year Anniversary
This Saturday (December 13th) was my 3-year anniversary as a Patreon creator, and this week I'm reflecting on how much has happened and changed over these three years. In the midst of this internal review, I am grieving bell hooks, who I know will continue to guide so many of our lives, though I'm experiencing her loss as magnifying the many losses of this year and the last. I recognize again—through emails and text messages and phone calls and blog posts (like this one ... Read more ...
