ABOUT ME
Writer, reader, parent of adults. Author of PARENT HACKS and other books + the Parent of Adults newsletter on Substack.
There’s way more to adulting than the typical five markers of adulthood (finish education, get a job, leave home, marry, have kids).
In Episode 228 of Edit Your Life, Christine talks to author Julie Lythcott-Haims. Her new book, Your Turn: How To Be An Adult, is about how to get beyond basic adulting to the power of wanting to be an adult and having to adult. Christine and Julie talk about vulnerability, perfectionism, people pleasing, and more.
Must we constantly attempt to improve ourselves?
I’ve been pretty quiet on the Internet these last few weeks. Not gone, just quiet.
It’s hard to talk about grief’s gifts without sounding maudlin, or insensitive to others’ experiences.
Strangely, it was easier for me to find words for grief right after my Dad died in February. Before COVID. Before my kids’ school lives were obliterated. Before Chadwick and Ruth and George. Before the fires. Before the election and its twisted aftermath. Before other losses, too private to talk about here.
I’m sitting in the charred ruins of my plans. I see them for the mirage they were. Not useless, simply mental exercises about a future I don’t control. The smoke is clearing.
Time is exquisite.
I’m a writer who hasn’t been writing much. My creative energy is only now starting to peek out from under a year of personal grief, political anxiety, and pandemic reality. That energy feels like…hope. A shy hope that gradually emerged as the darkness of grief began to recede, and perked up when the 2020 election was called, and news of upcoming COVID vaccines appeared.
My gut is pointing me toward storytelling, because I believe stories can help us heal. I don’t have much more to go on than that, so while I loosen up my rusty writing fingers, I figure the best thing I can do is to read good stories. But where to begin?
I asked my friends to tell me their favorite storytellers (from any genre) and BOY did they come through.
Ever since the 2020 Presidential election was called for Joe Biden, there’s been talk about the need for national healing.
There’s no doubt we must tend to the wounds our country has suffered. We must step away from the precipice of division and rancor we’ve been pushed toward for the last four years. But how? What does “healing” even mean on a national scale?
The #1 most effective way to impact the 2020 election is to connect with people who already know & trust you and help them vote.
Think about it: if you vote plus help three of your friends vote, you’ve QUADRUPLED your impact. My guess is that no amount of news reading or Facebook posting will come anywhere close.
Most of us already know who we’re planning to vote for, at least for President. But plans don’t elect people — votes do. And the only votes that count are on ballots that get filled in and returned on time.
This is where you come in.
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Photo credit on Podcast page: Karen Walrond
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