Standing in the Echo Chamber

There are no winners in terrorism, no winners in death or war. It makes brothers of us all. In the end, we are left with the remains of who we once were.

I feel like I am standing in an echo chamber, unable to hear my own thoughts through the haze of smoke and mirrors. The wail of mourning mothers’ fill my ears and the date October 7 is etched into my mind. Another date referring to being massacred, tortured, mercilessly torn from safety and forced to bear the weight of the deliberate attempt to wipe us from the map. “From the river to the sea.”…

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A Social Worker's Quandary

Change is not a natural trajectory when it requires upheaval and reevaluating the status quo.

Being a social worker within the system that currently exists often feels like an oxymoron. While reading for one of my classes, I was presented with the moral question of how it is possible to do good work at a time when there is so much bad. Every system we exist in is built on oppression, prejudice and the intentional and systemic failure of minority groups. It is impossible for me, and many…

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To reclaim lost pieces

As is often the case, we don’t usually realise the extent to which things chip away at us until we start to get those pieces back. I haven’t written on here this summer, mostly because I haven’t had the time to cohesively gather my thoughts into something anyone else would want to read. And also, this summer has been about reclaiming pieces that had broken off. New pieces, happier and healthier…

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How to balance living and survival

"it is ok to admit that you want more in life than to just survive"

Today I had a conversation with a close friend about why it impossible to do all the things. During this conversation I said that it is ok to admit that you want more in life than to just survive. These words struck me hard because that is the point — balancing living and surviving in a way that gives you the best opportunity to thrive. Survival mode can often be an undeniable gift. It is the…

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Half a Social Worker Right Now

Last week I finished my first year of Social Work school. I joked to my friends that I am now half a social worker. In truth, something that I have learned this year is that I am already a social worker before I have my qualifications, but require the degree to develop knowledge and skill that is necessary to be a good social worker in the field. I have learned a lot this year. I have also…

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You are not alone.

May is mental health awareness month. There are many things that I have written about mental health and that is just the tip of the iceberg. I think, however, that the most important thing I could say right now is that you are not alone. I understand the logic behind dedicating one month to a specific cause, celebration and education of a group of people, but I have also found it to be ironic…

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No more guns. Just no more.

Trigger Warning: School shootings/ gun violence Twenty six years ago, a gunman entered Dunblane Primary School in Scotland, killing 16 children and a teacher. The government in the United Kingdom responded by enacting tight gun control legislation. Since that day, there have been zero school shootings in the UK. I am writing this today on April 4, 2023. Between January 1 and today, there are…

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from caterpillar to chrysalis and out of the cocoon

A TikTok trend has been circulating where people look at the people they were and the places they had been in three years ago and where they are now. Three years ago last week (March 11, 2020) the Covid-19 pandemic was officially given Pandemic status by the World Health Organization. I watched this trend and the beginnings of a poem came to mind. from caterpillar to chrysalis and out of the…

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Hustling for Worthiness

I recently came across the term ‘hustling for worthiness’ for the first time in a book I was reading. This refers to the idea that people who crave validation, who crave being made to feel worthy, will constantly and unrelentingly seek out worthiness from other people and through external things. When I did some further research, I noticed that the term ‘Hustling for Worthiness’ was coined by…

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On a Bus, On a Stage

It blows my mind when people refuse to show empathy towards people who have immigrated. In the United States, immigrants are being bussed from the border of Southern states up north, to states and cities like New York. Put in busses like cattle: men, women and children, often split up and without basic necessities such as medication, enough food or warm clothing. They are then bussed 30-40 hours…

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Forever Learning

I have never been a fan of the self-help book genre. I believe that we are forever learning, but I did not think that the self-help genre was where my learning was going to happen. In a sense, this is ironic because most of what I write here would probably fall neatly into that category. However, when I found myself searching desperately for anything at all that would help me, I picked up a few…

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Way Up There

I think it’s funny that we put politicians and celebrities on pedestals. We place them way up there as godly figures, whose actions we seek to emulate. Invariably, however, when they do something that disappoints, reveal that they are human, and no better than anyone else, we feel betrayed, like we are owed an explanation, a better, more moral version of that person. The reason why I think this…

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Lost and Found

I’ve been thinking a lot about how often, in order to find yourself, you first have to lose a lot of things. Namely, what comes to mind for me is losing the restraints of other people’s opinions and perceptions of who you are. I suppose this seems pretty obvious when you think about it. In reality, however, to let go of other people’s opinions and perceptions is extremely difficult. Even from the…

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November

November is a month of Thursdays, I won’t be taking questions about that at this time. I’m not a winter person. When the days get shorter and the seasonal depression stretches out and gets super comfy, I don’t enjoy any of that. No amount of fairy lights and Christmas cheer can replace the fact that day time is like six hours long and I have the urge to go to bed by 5pm despite needing to…

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Dear Kanye

Like most Jews I am waiting with bated breath for two things. The first thing is what you are going to say next. I am waiting to hear if you are going to double down on your anti-Semitic rhetoric, if you are going to keep spewing the kind of hatred that puts me and people like me in more danger than you realize. Or perhaps you do realize and don’t care. I’m not sure. The second thing I am waiting…

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Internal Monologue

I believe in the power of words. I believe that the things we say have meaning, and that we bring into the world what we speak. And a huge part of that isn’t necessarily what we say out loud, but what we tell ourselves when no one is listening or watching. My inner monologue has been notorious for being a constant stream of negative self talk and criticism for as long as I can remember. And up…

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Branding

I don’t make a secret of wanting to grow my blog. So I do a lot of reading about how to grow a blog. And the most common answers that are given by ‘experts’ in the field are consistency and branding. I try to be as consistent as I can, but I am also authentic to a fault and if I don’t have anything that I deem blog worthy to say, then I won’t post it. Which brings me to my next point,…

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