Fathers Day (when it’s quiet)
This Father’s Day, I woke up to a strange sound. Not the laughter of my children down the hall. Not the murmurs of cartoons, not the sound of breakfast being quietly attempted. It wasn’t the sound of life you’d expect
Category: Parenting
A Place in the Sun
The Legacy of Sonora Smart Dodd and the Quiet Rebellion of Fatherhood In the cathedral of memory, certain moments crystallize like dew on morning grass: luminous, fragile, transformative. For Sonora Smart Dodd, that moment arrived in May 1909, nestled within
The Sacred Art of Being Weird:
How Family Symbols Shape Our Children’s Identity On patches, power, and the profound psychology of belonging There exists a moment in every family’s mythology when the abstract becomes tangible—when values crystallize into symbols, when philosophy becomes fabric. For us, that
What I’m Good At (And Didn’t Expect to Be)
If you had asked me a year ago what I was good at, I might’ve hesitated. Not because I didn’t have skills. I did. I could lead teams, manage chaos, show up for work like clockwork. I was functional. Reliable.
Untangling Generational Trauma
People talk about identity like it begins with grand displays or gestures—names, flags, pronouns, rewritten pasts. But for NeuroSpicey kids, it doesn’t start with what they can name. It starts in the body. In sensory safety. In being allowed to
A Collection of Connection… and rocks
Do you have any collections? When people ask if I collect anything, I usually say books. It’s the simplest answer. The cleanest. It doesn’t open too many doors. But that’s not really the truth, is it? The truth is, I’ve
Growth for a Ghost
There is a special kind of grief reserved for those of us who must stay close to someone we no longer get to hold. Not because we want to. Not because we can’t let go. But because life built a
For the Moms Who Don’t Quit
My mom is no longer here in body.But she’s here.In the resilience I respect.In the care I try to offer.In the quiet, determined power I still seek to understand. She did it all.Four boys.Homemade meals. Clean floors.School nights, science fairs,
“Voting Isn’t Just a Ballot”
Yes, I vote in elections. But not like a team sport. I don’t vote party lines, and I don’t confuse emotion with evidence. I vote for what’s rooted. I vote for what’s possible. But truth is, the ballot box isn’t
The Centering Power of a Quote
Do you have a quote you live your life by or think of often? “Host it. Don’t ghost it.” When I was growing up, my mom and I used to collect quotes like other families might collect souvenirs. We’d scribble
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