Women, Relationships & Parenting

How To Read Your Way Out Of Breakup Hell
Consider the paperbacks and guiltily-packed hardcovers my emotional therapy animals. In the backpack by my feet were reminders that changed the “oh my god, it’s all over” feeling to hope earned the hard way.

“Honey, maybe it’s time to take a break from theatre after this?” I suggested. “It’s late.”
“No, you can’t even say that. Are you serious? Theatre is my yoga!”
Exhausted, yes, but sometimes our teens know what they need better than we do.

Like yoga practice, motherhood (fatherhood, too, for that matter) can be a continual opportunity for inner growth, a sometimes uncomfortable realm to discover your emotional demons and physical boundaries, and a sanctuary for self-acceptance and the most profound sensations of love and gratitude.

It’s not every documentary that compels me to stay up writing most of the night and that weighs heavily on my mind for days. But then again Who Does She Think She Is? is not your average documentary. Directed by Pamela Tanner Boll, mother of three, writer and documentarian, the film looks at the under-representation of mothers in the arts and other creative fields.

That would have required an all-but-impossible thirteen-plus-hour flight from New York City to the old city of Damascus, the once-enchanted jasmine-scented city where Muna—a writer, teacher, poet, and mother—died after open-heart surgery in April 2016. Although the valve replacement operation she had was declared a success, Muna only survived twelve days after the operation.

Coverage of Slim Hopes first took place through the Institute of Empowerment, now Sage Girl empowering girls to live vibrant and authentic lives. Their film program and discussion series are designed to raise critical media awareness in teenagers.
There’s a French saying that goes: The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Masculinity for Sale – originally a Wild Finance blog post on the Wild River Review website.

Which leads me to the two things I found startling as I watched the 2000 documentary Tough Guise a documentary by Jackson Katz (which I saw as part of a Media Education Series hosted by the Institute for Empowerment headquartered in New Jersey). One, how relevant the film still is- how many years and how many repeat episodes after the Columbine shooting in the United States-and the disturbing nature of mass-produced notions of masculinity (based on violence and a tough exterior) that can hurt us all-boys and girls, men and women, mothers and fathers, cousins and friends, alike.