A few months back I read an article that focused on women inspiring other people, not just women. It caught my attention because in this new trend of feminism that streaks our Instagram feed with memes and quotes about women fixing other women’s crowns and standing united, there is another population who is reading it, and sometimes, are even positively affected — men.
The last few weeks have been swollen with emotions. From Dr. Christine Blasey Ford’s moving testimony to the blatant disregard of women’s truth and pain to the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, to say the last three weeks have been charged with feelings is an understatement. The words, at times, were lost, but other times flowing.
Recalled as a thought-provoking sentiment from some less memorable podcast, my friend, newly inspired and single, repeated these words and they struck me with equal intensity: “Some people are just love stories.” But not all love stories have happy endings. Sometimes they just end.
I’ve been married for over a year and just decided to change my name. And when I say decided I mean walk into the Social Security office and do it. With more emotions than I was expecting, I drove downtown, paid too much for parking, inserted my social security number into the kiosk, got my number and waited. Waited to change an identity I have held for 30 years.
“Be patient — you are on your way.” What is your experience with patience? How can you grant yourself the time and space to develop, to discover your desires, to grow? Share your story. Read More
Sonya Looney is a world champion endurance mountain biker. She has shared her story as a writer, public speaker, and podcast host. She talks about her rise to becoming one of the top adventure female athletes with heavy doses of motivation and positivity. So when she reached out to interview Cat on her podcast, the answer was an immediate yes!
My mother lost her mother when she was only 16. It’s a reality I’ve been blessed to not understand, but one that so many others do. This Mother’s Day, my mother wrote to her mom, shares the lessons passed on in the short time they were together and reflects that she is never really without her mom.
Introducing our new mini-column “In Response To” where we write our opinions on the stuff that happens around us. Read it like a novel-length text to a friend, a snapshot into the minds of Ladies Aloud, and an unfiltered (and definitely un-researched) Reply All. Read More
“One poem, in particular, was too dark, too heavy, too sad for me to keep in my space. Believing in the strength and energy of words, I decided to let that shit go – not, not let it go, purge it from my life.
So I burned it.”
What is your experience with purging — habits, thoughts, people? Share your story.
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Entrenched in conversation, she focuses her blue eyes in her thoughts. She gives me spastic glances below her dark curly hair checking to see if I am still looking. I am. I will hold this gaze (don’t call it male) until she relents. Holding my stare I notice how her mouth is slightly uneven making her more alluring, more approachable. The right side wraps slightly further upward as her thin lips unravel into a smile from what she wants to portray as genuine entertainment, but I know it’s for me. It’s my opening.