Happy New Year! Congratulations to all of us for making it through 2017 with our sanity mostly intact. It was a really rough year, wasn't it? I don't know about you, but just when I thought I was getting a handle on things, something else would come along and knock me off my feet. There … Continue reading (Personal) My 2017
Category: Self-Reflection
Kwanzaa, Day 7: Imani (Faith)
Habari gani, brothers and sisters? Happy New Year! I'm pretty sure most of us (myself included) are spending the final day of Kwanzaa somewhat sleep-deprived and hungover, so I'll speak quietly and wish you the tastiest of greasy breakfasts and a quick recovery so you can start 2018 getting your shit handled. No matter how … Continue reading Kwanzaa, Day 7: Imani (Faith)
Kwanzaa, Day 6: Kuumba (Creativity)
Habari gani, brothers and sisters? Today is the last day of 2017, and to say it's been an interesting year is a small understatement. But we've made it! We're about to enter 2018, a year full of new possibilities and problems that will require us to be united, self-aware, diligent, cooperative, and purposeful to solve. … Continue reading Kwanzaa, Day 6: Kuumba (Creativity)
Kwanzaa, Day 5: Nia (Purpose)
Habari gani, brothers and sisters? Today's principle is Nia, or Purpose. This is another one of those blue-sky concepts that could mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people and that can make it a little difficult to talk about. What context should we place Nia in? How does it fit … Continue reading Kwanzaa, Day 5: Nia (Purpose)
Kwanzaa, Day 4: Ujamaa (Cooperative Economics)
Habari gani, brothers and sisters? So a number of studies have been released teasing out the role that race plays in upward mobility -- in other words, how easy it is for black vs. white families to rise out of poverty. There's this study from the Brookings Institution about the economic mobility of black and … Continue reading Kwanzaa, Day 4: Ujamaa (Cooperative Economics)
Kwanzaa, Day 3: Ujima (Collective Work and Responsibility
Habari gani, brothers and sisters? One of the things I'll strive to remember in 2018 is that we're all in this together. We all share the planet we call home and we all share our collective victories and setbacks -- from that perspective, there's just no need to be envious of someone else's success and … Continue reading Kwanzaa, Day 3: Ujima (Collective Work and Responsibility
Kwanzaa, Day 2: Kujichagulia (Self-Determination)
Habari gani, brothers and sisters? A depressingly common refrain we tend to get whenever we make the attempt to center blackness for a time is "Why don't we get WHITE (pride, History Month, superheroes, etc.)?" My response is this: Has this ever happened to most (if not all) white ancestors in your family? … Continue reading Kwanzaa, Day 2: Kujichagulia (Self-Determination)
Kwanzaa, Day 1: Umoja (Unity)
Habari gani? You might not know it, but today is the first day of Kwanzaa! A lot of people tend to dismiss Kwanzaa because it's a made up holiday, or because it promotes divisiveness by centering the African diaspora, or because the whole thing sounds so silly. But all holidays were newly made up at … Continue reading Kwanzaa, Day 1: Umoja (Unity)
(Organization) The Pomodoro Technique
One of the 'features' of ADHD is an impaired executive function, which is all kind of fun. Those of us who have a difficult time with our executive functions might have problems with self-motivation, self-awareness, self-restraint, working memory (our inner monologue and imagination), planning and problem solving. In other words, those of us with ADHD … Continue reading (Organization) The Pomodoro Technique
(Writing) Writing and the Anxious Rabbit
Generalized Anxiety Disorder is a mental illness that can be difficult to talk about, mostly because it looks like one of those 'special snowflake' disorders that someone claims to have in order to justify certain behaviors. Even with an official diagnosis and some significant time in a group therapy class, it's the aspect of my … Continue reading (Writing) Writing and the Anxious Rabbit
From the Desk of Jakebe T. Rabbit 