Birthmarks and Breakdowns: A Raw Look at Maternal Anxiety
→
My therapist says I have a severe case of catastrophic thinking. Well, I could have told you that. At any minor setback, my brain somehow determines it’s the literal end of the world, and I start jumping through the mental hoops of how I’m going to cope with it.
Enmeshed but Alone
→
Even in collectivistic societies where families and friends live much more intertwined lives, loneliness is still prevalent.
Home in the spaces between
→
I kept wanting something the world showed me I couldn't have. I wanted someone who'd look at my scars and not look away but call me beautiful. I wanted someone to loosen the knots around my thoughts and know what sort of tapestry they made. I wanted someone to call my own.
What They Don't Tell You About the Third Year After Losing Someone
→
What they don’t tell you about the third year after loss:
In some ways, it’s harder than the first, maybe even the second.
When the Orphan Crisis Has a Name
→
On that day, we saw the number, and the number became a person, and I realised: she is one of the 153 million orphans.
Not Everyone Should Foster or Adopt a Child
→
May is National Foster Care Month in the U.S. I’m not going to give you numbers of how many children are in foster care or how many of them will suffer lifelong impediments as a result of their traumatic childhoods.
Instead, I’m going to share stories.
Platonic Soulmates: What Happened to Our Friendships?
→
Many cultural critics argue that the art of friendship is in decline. The United States surgeon general has named loneliness an epidemic. People are lonelier than ever, and they don’t know what to do about it. Why is that?
In the Absence of a Lost Love, Will an Echo Do?
→
In 2013, Black Mirror released an episode in which a widow utilises technology allowing her to communicate with an AI imitation of her late husband, called Be Right Back. Eleven years since then, we now face a very real possibility of this technology coming to fruition.
Fractured Perspectives on Loss
→
Your death became the lens through which I viewed the world: cruel and meaningless.
Grief is an invisible threshold. Once you cross over, there's no returning to who you were before.
Christmas For Those Who Grieve
→
Christmas is not always a joyous time for everyone, particularly for those of us who are grieving.
I write this letter for you.
I reflect on the way holidays make feelings of grief more acute, and how my family honours those we’ve lost in this time when others seem focused on celebrating.
Ways I Am Simplifying My Life in 2024
→
Though I’m a workaholic, juggling so many balls while living with chronic illness has meant learning to quiet my perfectionism and be okay with letting some things go.
Advent, Fog, and Beauty in the Unknown
→
I don’t know if I noticed the simple beauty of witnessing the first light of day at the time. The fog of grief still shrouded every corner of my mind. This trip was just another attempt to keep it from pulling me under.
I ran toward the rising of the sun.
To Be Loved Completely
→
Time is a strange concept. It marches on while parts of me remain firmly planted in the past. It begs the question, who am I, really?
The Trap of Instagram and Social Media
→
It’s no secret that social media addiction impacts mental health negatively. There’s also the very real threat of your account arbitrarily being shut down by the powers-that-be, and losing all your hard work and memories in a single instant.
Learning to Ask for Help
→
I have this deeply rooted fear of burdening others. Growing up, there was a huge emphasis on the principle of protecting the family’s reputation and privacy, as well as living in a way so as not to owe anyone anything. This bred a culture of secrecy and distrust that has permeated my adult life.
Reconciling Workaholism with Chronic Illness
→
Rest has never come easily to me, and I know I’m not alone in that. In our hustle culture, rest is earned, not given.
The Case for Slow Reading
→
But that’s the thing, isn’t it? With that kind of speed, it’s about consumption rather than digestion. Admittedly when I’m reading quickly, I am essentially giving myself the equivalent of a Sparknotes taste before deciding to fully invest.
Making a Home for Grief
→
I put “heal” in quotations because as grieving people know, it’s a bit of a misnomer; you don’t really heal from grief; it merely evolves as time passes. There’s also never point where you are fully free from it.
