Yesterday I ran away

This last week was ROUGH.

My work schedule was slammed with students. As a writing coach, I meet with students one on one to help them improve their writing skills while empowering them to understand the rhetorical situation and make their own smart choices. It becomes mentally and physically draining when I'm logging almost 6.5 hours of back to back contact time with students four days a week. I usually have Fridays off, but instead, I went in to work for a few hours to meet the needs of my students.

Thursday my husband came down with the cold/sinus/blah junk that I had a few weeks ago.

On Friday night while attending a play that a friend of mine was directing, I got word that my great-grandma passed away. I have beautiful memories of her from when I was a child. She lived a long, full life, but death has a way of dredging up unexpected emotions.

Saturday my husband and I spent much of our day trying to diffuse tantrums.The bedroom walls endured their usual beating from our kids' unspoken emotions--likely frustration with our boundaries, sadness at all the loss they've endured, confusion about who to be mad at. A sense of helplessness reverberated throughout our house. The last tantrum stretched on until 10:30 PM, and my husband and I collapsed soon after, our conversation about solutions always cut short by sleep.

On Sunday morning I picked my son up from Sunday school and the volunteer teacher reported, "We had some problems with him today. He wasn't listening and the other kids were saying that he said bad words. You might want to fix it." I know she has no context of our situation, but her words were just another reason to call myself a failure as a parent.

Yesterday I ran away.

In Defense of Jen Hatmaker

If you're a Jen Hatmaker fan, you've likely read (or read about) the interview she did with Religion News Service. Maybe you've even stumbled upon a response to it from super-conservative writers like Matt Walsh. You might know that my girl, Jen, has been ripped to shreds by many Christians. I certainly have some questions for Hatmaker, but I'm not saddened by her response like so many others are. Actually, I'm more saddened by the way Christians have reacted to her interview.

2016: The year of shouting our feelings from the proverbial rooftops

We all have a lot of feelings lately, don't we? It's the year of feelings and shouting them on every social media outlet. And admittedly, I've got a lot of feelings, too. I always have--I am, after all, an INFJ. In addition to being a person who feels all the feels, I also think...a lot. I tend to get "lost in my mind," (any fans of The Head and The Heart?!?). Since I've inserted myself into the world of freelance writing, though, I've thought a lot about slowing down and its necessity in our culture today. Not only is it important to slow down the frantic pace of life Americans have adopted, but it's important to slow down our mouths and typing fingers, too. 

Aaron Burr's character in Hamilton, encourages the young Alexander Hamilton to "talk less, smile more." I'm taking his words a bit out of context here because Burr was all about keeping his ideas inside his mind while Hamilton was quite the opposite. I don't think we should silence our opinions, but I do think we should talk less and listen more. I'm learning this value is preventing me from really making it in the freelance world. 

This guy is clearly shouting.