Most of us have more on our plates than we can possibly deal with right now. On top of being in personal survival mode, we are surrounded by pressing global issues that, quite honestly, we probably feel compelled to do something about. A terrifyingly critical presidential election is less than two months away. Long-standing issues of racial justice are at a tipping point. Much of the country is literally on fire. It sort of feels like we are in the chokehold of the immediate needs of our family, while simultaneously drowning in the swirling sea of disaster that has become our world these past six months. How are people staying…

My heart is so very heavy and my brain in such a fog due to the events of the past few days. I fear this post may be more of a diary entry than an informative or meaningful article to anyone else. It has been so difficult to find time to write during the past month of the pandemic; I have been feeding and tending to and loving my babies 24/7 for the past 12 weeks solid, working into the wee hours of the night to finish an acceptable bare minimum for my “real” job. Tonight I have found a spare window of time to write (time I should be…

As COVID-19 spreads throughout the world, it brings with it a flood of impact beyond the principal concern of health. In the midst of financial devastation, as well as childcare and employment concerns, the effect on our emotions is not to be underestimated. The bizarre situation in which we’ve found ourselves is unlike anything most of us have experienced in our lifetime. As daily life has been majorly disrupted, yet in many ways feels the same as always, we’re all navigating a strange mixture of emotions. Anxiety over the unknown – will I go to work Monday? Will I continue to get paid? Fear over the virus itself – will…

By Kristina Klein (~2013) One young year I dreamt a dream That I should wake and it should seem That Santa never did exist And that old feeling won’t persist. Then I woke to find the dream Was just a dream, and cannot mean That all my glee had dissipated   And young splendor all but wasted. But one year passed and that dull dread Began to weave its strangling thread. Once present just in unreal night thoughts Now lingering in the morning sunspots. Tucked in my bed I lay and I think About the joy disappeared in only a wink The wink of a year, in a cynical world Draining…

Today I was walking down the hall of my school with a black library scanner, holding it like a gun. Suddenly it occurred to me that I should hold it differently. I shifted it into the palms of both of my hands, lightly and playfully bouncing it up into the air as I sauntered the rest of the way to the library. My heightened sense of awareness about appearing to hold a weapon surely stemmed from the constant mass shootings and school shootings we hear about on the news. At no moment, however, did I actually believe that someone at my school would think I was carrying a gun. I’m…

I realized today that at 33, I’m still learning a very fundamental and obvious truth about human beings. A reality I remember from time to time, then somehow forget and have to re-learn. It’s the fact that people are multi-faceted, good and bad, kind and imperfect. They disappoint. They are hard to figure out. And no one can be categorized, as much as we ache to do so.  There’s a certain gal I see often in one of my spheres. She’s quite funny and makes me laugh out loud every time we spend time together. She is nice to me, and she thinks my baby is adorable. Last year I…

In the spring of 2014, my future husband and I were driving in circles around a wealthy neighborhood about 40 minutes from our home, looking for a hiking area called Poo Poo Point. I always remember this day because at one point, I rolled down my window like I was in a Grey Poupon commercial and asked a random woman, “Excuse me, do you happen to know how to get to Poo Poo Point?” She started to answer in a very friendly manner, then stopped and asked amusedly, “Wait, what’s it called?” Poo Poo Point. It’s my favorite hike, strictly due to the name.  There’s another reason I’ll remember this…

The first time I ever saw my mom cry was when she came out of a doctor’s appointment one day when I was a child. She cried the entire drive home. I’m sure I was more than old enough that it should have occurred to me to give her a hug or ask if she was okay, but I was so stunned that I just sat there in silence the entire drive. (Sorry about that, mom). When we got home, I sobbed also because I had only ever seen my mom as a strong, confident woman who knows all the answers. It terrified me to see her cut down like…