It was the pink balloon that got my attention. A solitary mauve mylar star, slightly battered and floating in the breeze outside the door of Left Bank Books, a beloved independent bookstore in St. Louis’s Central West End neighborhood. It smelled like rain, but that didn’t discourage my 11-year-old from wanting ice cream. One of … Continue reading Another Red State Goes Pink: Signature Gathering Success in MO
How I lost my identity, and found my purpose New beginnings are often disguised as painful endings. ~Lau Tzu Although no one can go back and make a brand new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending. ~Zig Ziglar A lot’s going on in the world today, friend. So today, … Continue reading Everything Had to Fall Apart, For Everything to Come Together
Yesterday, while trying to tame my unruly garden, I saw the first grasshopper of the year (which seems early, doesn’t it?). And I was reminded of an old experiment – one that sheds light on important aspects of the Republican strategy and how we can fight back. It’s an experiment you may have run (unintentionally) … Continue reading Learned Optimism, Learned Helplessness, And Why Some Folks In Red States Just Never Give Up
When you’re a woman of a certain age living in a red state, you honestly don’t have anything to lose. Over the better part of the last decade, we’ve watched in complete horror as everything we were “hysterical” about in the early morning hours of November 8, 2016 has come to pass. I remember November … Continue reading I Have Hot Flashes and a Republican Senator. Don’t Tell Me To Calm Down.
We are stardust brought to life, then empowered by the universe to figure itself out - and we have only just begun. ~Neil deGrasse Tyson Yesterday, in backyards from Texas to Maine, school kids and grandparents alike grabbed eclipse glasses and watched in awe as the light dimmed. It was a rare, strange, collective, experience. … Continue reading The Eclipse: A Full Circle and a Jumping Off Point
There's something really fulfilling about seeing a message that you've been yammering on about for more than seven years finally take off. So you can imagine my delight when, over the past few weeks, I've seen multiple stories, emails, and social media posts about the need to run everywhere – and the benefits of doing … Continue reading Is the message finally getting through?
This past week I was reminded of the humanity behind the news. It came at an interesting moment, to be honest. I was moderating a Forgotten Democrats town hall with Fred Wellman and a journalist, Martin Kuz, who has been covering the war in Ukraine. It was an intimate conversation, with a small group. Perhaps … Continue reading The Humanity Behind the News
Persistence can grind an iron beam into a needle. ~Chinese proverb Patience, persistence and perspiration make an unbeatable combination for success. ~Napoleon Hill “Go fly a kite” means something different in our family, because of a little … ahem … incident a few years ago. Picture a gorgeous fall day. Robin's egg blue sky, a chill to … Continue reading Go Fly A Kite: Patience, Persistence, and a Last Minute Plan
Yesterday I gave my eleven-year-old son a writing prompt. It’s the latest in a long series of projects that I hope will give him the practice that he needs to develop as a writer and a thinker. Sometimes the prompts I give him are inspiring. Sometimes they’re silly. Sometimes they’re serious. Sometimes they’re thought-provoking. Yesterday's … Continue reading To You, Ten Years From Now
Friend, forgive me for not rehashing the gnashing of teeth that I've seen over the last 48 hours. Plenty of ink has been spilled over whiplash polling and Supreme Court decisions, and I don't think you need to hear it from yet another angle. And honestly – hear me out – I think talking about it … Continue reading There’s No Silver Bullet
Small Deeds Done 