“And”– three little letters, used so often we forget how important that word can be. My kids called it a sight word when they were learning to read, one they needed to know on sight, immediately.  Three letters that connect two things—items, teams, people, animals, anything, and everything including feelings. Ahhh… feelings. They always complicate things, don’t they? Have you ever known someone (or maybe you are someone) who had a particularly tough experience or are feeling some type of way and they immediately follow it up with “but it’s okay, I’m not complaining. I’m really lucky overall to have the opportunity.” What if, we stop saying “but” (another complicated…

I’m tired… not the kind of tired that sleep can help. The kind of tired you get when people are kind of awful to each other. The kind of tired that comes when everyone is screaming through a keyboard at each other,  teachers and schools have become the enemy and other parents just don’t care as much. Political conversations are too often about degrading each other than about policy and plans. I’m tired, and many of my friends are tired.   We’re tired and we are overwhelmed. I don’t know what the answer is, but I know that we have reached the angry stage with the pandemic and the hateful stage…

I’ve been thinking about something recently… I may have given you all the wrong impression of me:   the impression that I know what I’m doing at any given time. I don’t. I am a hot mess, mostly the endearing kind, not the kind that needs an intervention—mostly.  I’m also an accidental jerk. I would never disrespect anyone on purpose, but I too often use the time of an event as a guideline, relying heavily on the “ish.”  For instance, I forget to send the card I bought two weeks ago, or I forgot to look up that information…or to bake those cookies.  I’m often the recipient of an email from…