I share this Instagram post from @drdevonprice this morning because I think it may be helpful to remember this. It reads,
You are not obligated to issue grand proclamations about incredibly complex issues you know relatively little about. You are also not obligated to flood your nervous system with upsetting imagery and information for hours — that is not the same thing as informing yourself.
With love and fierce advocacy, let’s honor and uphold trans kids. 
And their affirming parents.
At the end of 2021, one of the support groups at the Epilepsy Foundation of Michigan shared a lovely moment together. One of the group members chose a song for each person, sharing one by one that this song encapsulates a wonderful part of who they are uniquely.
Yesterday, when we introduced our new staff member to this group, they shared about their lives and one by one, they said, “This is my song,” — each naming the song chosen for them.
We internalize the best things people share about us. (So we should share them).
–Renee Roederer
The image above is a tweet from @AlexBanayan, and I really love it. It reads,
“When I interviewed Maya Angelou, she told me to write this sentence on my notepad and to never forget it.
‘Every storm runs out of rain.’
i still think of that line to this day.”
As I reflect on this, I think it can mean a number of things:
— Some storms aren’t worth our energy.
— Sometimes, we’ve fought too long in a direction that’s not worth it. Just walk away.
But I think my favorite is this:
— Sometimes, with time, the clouds clear. The pain is clearer too, or healed or healing. And love, or possibility, or expansiveness, or growth is what remains.
What does it mean to you?
–Renee Roederer
I hope that you’ll set an alarm today for 2:22pm.
Because it will be 2/22/22 at 2:22pm. AND the day of the week is Twosday.
–Renee Roederer
Whether you have trauma in your childhood or have pains and griefs in adulthood, I think this video from Anna Runkle gives good advice, so I’d love to share it today. When you feel stuck emotionally or situationally, how do you move through it?
She shares that we need to imagine a better future and begin telling ourselves a more life-giving story.
I hope this helps.
–Renee Roederer
I woke up happy, hopeful, and uplifted, and I was grateful. On Saturday, I shared here about my sudden, unexpected back pain. But already by Sunday, it was gone, and I was feeling both lighter and delighted.
This caused me to reflect: Sometimes, we need to make space for our pain and feel our way through it, whether it is physical, emotional, or both. Though that is challenging, it may need our attention and our intention to tend to it. It many cases, it won’t persist in the same way forever. It may also clear us out for something different. I think about one of my favorite poems,
The Guesthouse
This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.
A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.
Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they are a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.
The dark thought, the shame, the malice.
meet them at the door laughing and invite them in.
Be grateful for whatever comes.
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.
— Jellaludin Rumi,
translation by Coleman Barks
Whatever you’re feeling, may you be cleared out for some new delight.
–Renee Roederer
My 40th birthday was more than a month ago, but this year, I asked my loved ones for something unique. I asked them to pick a random month of the year and surprise me with something. I said it doesn’t need to be big — no flash mobs needed. But I dearly love surprises, and I thought it would be fun to spread that energy throughout a whole year.
I’ve received boxes of goodies in the mail and a new coffee mug that I love. I’ve been surprise sledding and surprise roller skating. One person — and this is so generous — is making me a surprise meal once per month. Last weekend, she made me linguine from scratch. How lucky am I?
And then last night, I shared a text with a young adult I love to see if we wanted to pick up watching where we left off with Buffy the Vampire Slayer (My favorite show ever! We watching it all bit by bit, and we sync our screens over distance.) “How about 8:30?” she replied.
“Yep,” I replied simply.
8:30pm rolled around, and my doorbell rang. She drove from an hour away to watch it with me in person!
SURPRISE!
I loved it.
-Renee Roederer
To my great surprise, I woke up this morning with a migraine and intense, lower back pain. (What is this? Is this 40? Just kidding. I think.) I have no idea why. I do get migraines a few times a year, but back pain is not common at all for me. It’s also gotten progressively better throughout the morning, thankfully.
Michigan Nones and Dones, one of the communities I help organize, meets on Saturday, and there are many people there who can also help to lead and welcome newcomers. By the time I got on the screen, I felt a bit better, but they all did this.
Part of leadership is nurturing the leadership of others and/or just getting out of the way and letting them do what they are already so good at doing.
–Renee Roederer
One of my favorite, quirky-but-true things to think about is how we have never resided in the same physical space. It may feel like it, but that’s not true in a cosmic scale. By this time tomorrow, we will have collectively hurtled 10 million miles through space, as our planet revolves around a sun that is also revolving around the center of the Milky Way. And the universe itself is expanding, so every second, we hurtling and residing in a space we’ve never resided in before.
So when it comes to our own lives, why do we think we have to stay in the same rut we’ve been in for so long?
–Renee Roederer
Smuggling Grace 