Freedom of Voice

I’m writing this from my phone in the car. I am the passenger, so no one’s life is danger. There is a light drizzle falling, a rain our weather people have promised all week. We are in route to see John’s parents and just left mine. And, we spent yesterday at Gasparilla with friends of over 22 years, friends my kids call aunt and uncle. We are godparents to their daughter. I babysat their son while I was a stay at home mom, loving him as my own. I’m not sure where I am going with all this, except it has been a good weekend. The Gasparilla thing was a spur of the moment decision, one I’m glad we made. My heart is full after seeing people I love, people who are happy to see me. I needed it, as much as I need the coffee we are in line for after a full day of Gasparilla fun!

As I drove to work the other day, I noticed a dump truck with its cover flapping furiously in the wind, exposing the load of dirt and rocks it was hauling at 75 miles per hour. I eased on over one more lane, trying to put a little distance between me and the imminent danger. Unless a rock flew horizontally across three lanes of traffic, I--and my car--should be safe. CRACK! There it was. A chip in my windshield. I watched as the crack in the glass spread. Normally, I would have instantly gone on a woe is me tirade, playing out the oh so inconvenient process of calling my insurance, scheduling the windshield replacement only to have them drop the new one or bring the wrong one or whatever else could go wrong. I would have fretted about it for the rest of my drive, bemoaning my bad luck. But, I didn't. Instead I did what I vowed to do for 2018: I breathed. I took a giant inhale, sucking in as much oxygen as I could before letting it out with a loud sigh. I took another look at ...

A great new invention has come out recently--a machine that folds your clothes for you. Yes, you heard me—it folds your clothes. The problem is, you have to feed the clothing items into the machine one by one. I'll save my $1,000. By the time I feed it all in, I could have folded it myself. Then, I see there is one where you just put all the clothes in a drawer, and it will sort and fold the items (all but socks--don't get me started on socks)--for a mere $16,000. <Insert every surprised, appalled, befuddled emoji here> $16,000??? I have written about my feelings regarding laundry before. You can read about it here if you want. I have to admit, it made me chuckle a little. My feelings haven't changed at all--and either has the nature of laundry. But, this isn't about laundry.  It's about technology. I am surrounded by self-cleaning appliances. My oven will burn the overspill off after 4 hours of smoke-producing high heat. But, it leaves behin...

No, this is not about going to the doctor. No one will be sticking a tongue depressor so far back in your throat you want to gag. I promise. The "ahhh" I'm talking about is that rush of air pushed out after a deep inhale, that point of release where you exhale all the stress building in your body, all that stuff making your neck tight, your heart race, your head pound, your brain freak out. My #1 goal for 2018 is to breathe through situations that would normally trigger worry and anxiety. The great thing is, I can pull it off without any special equipment or without drawing attention to myself, and especially important feature when you work with middle schools students who claim you're " triggered " every time you do or say anything they don't approve of. And, just in case you didn't know, that's pretty much everything. Come to think of it, I can exhibit signs of triggeredness (I'm fully aware this isn't a word--even before spell a...