Gifts You Give Yourself

Letting go of what no longer serves you is the best gift you can give yourself. Clearly my readers agree as this share of Ellen Scher, LCMH's Substack post, "Aging Out Of F*cks: The Neuroscience of Why You Suddenly Can't Pretend Anymore" received over 1K lurk views on LinkedIn. On more than one private aside over text or direct message, folks expressed how this article made them feel seen, alongside their absolute terror of publicly liking the post on the professionally leaning social media platform.

I don't blame them! Protective Curation, a lurker literacy I describe in my book, is when you stay publicly silent on social media because you are investing in resources to strengthen your professional or social status. Whether it is a fear of professional reprimand from employers or clients who engage in mediated lurking of our posts or the uncertainty of how our digital micro-movements are stored and repurposed in an age of mostly unregulated AI, sometimes the only thing we feel we can control is whether or not we click like.

I hope that this holiday season, you can let go of whatever you have been carrying around that no longer serves you.

Lit Live!

A doctor examining my body once told me: you're very lucky to have someone love you.

This comment was in response to her revelation that I was married. Where this might seem to be a surprising response, this story is rooted in the 300 yr old history of Ichthyosis, a rare hereditary skin condition. I shared a piece of this story from my miscarried manuscript during the Creative Writing Program's Lit, Live! reading series.

I come on at the 28 minute mark after my incredible poetry colleague, Matthew Rotando.

Click the link below and use password: a8#P=b#4

Video Conferencing, Web Conferencing, Webinars, Screen Sharing

Zoom is the leader in modern enterprise video communications, with an easy, reliable cloud platform for video and audio conferencing, chat, and webinars across mobile, desktop, and room systems. Zoom Rooms is the original software-based conference room solution used around the world in board, conference, huddle, and training rooms, as well as executive offices and classrooms. Founded in 2011, Zoom helps businesses and organizations bring their teams together in a frictionless environment to get more done. Zoom is a publicly traded company headquartered in San Jose, CA.

Zoom

Poet Christina M. Rau, another fabulous colleague, gave my Long Island Changemakers podcast a quick shoutout in her All Good Things Newsletter, which shares creative happening and opportunities on Long Island and Beyond. Definitely check it out if you're looking for opportunities to connect with creative communities.

I am grateful to teach and write alongside such supportive colleagues. I hope 2026 brings you creative spaces to explore, release, and build anew.

Thanks for walking beside me,

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