America — can we please step down a minute from being violent with each other? Please remember that we are family. Someday my cute little 5-year-old grand-nephew will grow up to be a black man in America. I want the America that he grows up in to be a safe and welcoming space for him, but right now it is not. And until we realize that we are all connected to each other, we won’t be able to stop this crazy imbalance of power.

I want to make sure that everyone knows that they are my family. If you are…

I remember standing in the hall outside my classroom, having a very strong premonition that I would get some life-threatening illness and possibly not survive if I kept working in this place. It was the start of my decision to quit my job, despite not being able to find a job to replace it with. It was May of the school year and one of the students set fire to a bathroom on the same floor as my classroom. (It just happened to coincide with the start of a national test.)

The next day I was back in my classroom…

I was born in Seattle, Washington and spent most of the first 40 years of my life in the Northwest US. After traveling led me to meet my Swedish husband, Mattias on the swing dance floor, we decided we wanted to be together and have a child. We knew that it would be much more affordable for us to live in Sweden, but it was eye-opening the contrast when I actually crunched the numbers for this article. Read on to hear the story behind the numbers.

The comments I hear constantly when discussion of healthcare reform comes up are,

“But…

It was the night of the 3rd of November in 2010 when I passed through the vintage doors of the dance studio called Chicago. The jazz music beckoned to my heart, already happy with so much celebration. And now I was floating on the clouds. I passed my money over, changed into my dance shoes, and descended a few stairs onto the actual dance floor. Everywhere I looked people were dressed like they were from the 30’s and 40’s in vintage outfits, with pin curls and flowers dotting their hair. As a 5’ 10” tall woman, I was excited to…

Several years ago, I went to a concert in the Seattle Symphony's Benaroya Concert Hall. It was a performance with a community orchestra, adult chorus, and children’s chorus. A neighbor of mine, singing in the adult chorus, invited me to the concert. And, being a violist and orchestra teacher for many years meant that I knew a few people performing in the orchestra as well. So, I had several people I wanted to say “hi” to afterward. But, there were so many performing that I couldn’t find any of the people I meant to talk to but the quest, kept…

How to SOUL Feed: Skin-to-Skin, Oxytocin, Unplug, Listen

When parents have shame and guilt around not being able to or not wanting to breastfeed or there are adopted parents and male parents that can’t breastfeed, we are driving a wedge between these parents and babies. Let’s lift the pressure to breastfeed exclusively, and support parents & caregivers to bond with children,

We might actually have an effect of more breastfeeding from a place of empowerment rather than a place of guilt. But, right now, many women are simply spending their time crying over not breastfeeding. Or they spend way too…

(Ditch The Formula Feeding Guilt & Bond With Your Baby)

“Breast Is Best!” The phrase kept haunting me.

I always assumed my child would be 100% breastfed. I read many books and devoured chapters of breastfeeding issues and how to overcome them. I knew it would be difficult, but I figured with the right support I would succeed. I struggled for 10 years with fertility delay and feeling like my body failed me before. Now that I had this miracle baby at age 43, it felt like another way my body was failing me when I couldn’t exclusively breastfeed. But, my child bonded with both my husband and me in…

I had a wish to have a child. I was married and went through 4 years of infertility. The fertility clinic, the naturopath, the acupuncturist, the doctors, the tests, the miscarriage, the anguish, the tears. How many times did I ask myself when will I become a mother?

I was struggling in my marriage and super depressed about not conceiving. I found a spiritual coach who started to help me get in touch with my intuition again. …