IT’S THE MOOOOOOST, WONDERFUL TIIIIIIIME OF THE YEAAAAAAAR!!!!!! IT’S OUR SIXTH ANNUAL HOLIDAY HANDS!!!!! As we start our project this year, let’s look back on how Together Rising’s Holiday Hands started. Here’s an excerpt from the 2011 post I wrote to launch this idea:   I was watching a news story about the economy recently and there were many families talking about how they were going to have a hard time buying gifts for their children this year. Some said that having their usual Christmas dinner was not an option, because they didn’t have the money for the turkey and…

For Billy Hey loves. Look! This is what a survivor looks like. It’s World Suicide Prevention Week. My incredible friend Jamie at To Write Love on Her Arms is leading a brutiful movement to rain down hope on hurting people today. He wants us to take a moment to say to the world’s canaries: IT’S OKAY TO FEEL TOO MUCH. Stay with us. We need you. It might not get easier- but YOU WILL GET STRONGER. And so those of us who have been there- we’re pointing to that moment in our life when we considered the exit door and we…

One of my greatest gifts of 2016 is a new friendship. My favorite thing about writing is that it helps me gather my tribe. I wrote a love letter to the world called Love Warrior and sent it out into the abyss. Life is a tunnel and we writers call our truth out loud and then we get really quiet and wait and listen. The waiting is a little scary, but then the echo comes. Our tribe calls back… I hear you. Me too. Me too. So this new friend read my love letter—she heard my call—and then she called…