Follow My Writing Journey Via My Weekly Email Newsletter: Empathy For the Win!

Subscribe to my new weekly newsletter, Empathy For the Win!

I am going to quit updating this blog. So, from now on, subscribe for updates.

In this newsletter, I’ll write honestly about what it’s like to build a career on telling personal stories, how it feels to be vulnerable for an audience of both strangers and loved ones.

I’ll also keep you up-to-date with my writing on Medium, always with free-access friends links.

Thanks so much for your support!

Here's a link to my first newsletter!

Medium Writing of the Week: Rosh Hashanah, Poetry, Feminist Bravery, Treat People How They Want to Be Treated

Photo by Christal Yuen on Unsplash

I've got four new pieces in Medium this week!

What Does it Mean to Be ‘Normal’?

For Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year, let’s vow to celebrate our differences.

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Adopt the Platinum Rule to Revitalize Your Relationships

Forget the Golden Rule, and treat others the way they want to be treated.

Published in P. S. I Love You on Medium
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You Can’t Be Brave Without Being Scared First

When you write vulnerable stories, sometimes it’s hard to ignore the trolls.

Published in Fearless She Wrote on Medium
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In My Bath, No One Can Touch Me, Except Me

I am a crocodile, lurking in my clawfoot swamp.

This poem was published in An Injustice! on Medium
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Yes, I’m Vegan, But Not Because I Love Animals

Animals deserve to live free from human harm, whether I love them or not.

I just published this on Medium.

Photomontage Image by Sarah Richter from Pixabay

Published This Week: My 8th Grade Crush, How My Husband and I Connect, and Retail Therapy Without Spending Money

Will I Ever Get Over My 8th Grade Crush?

No, I don’t want to date him. I just want to stop hearing him in my head.

Published in P. S. I Love You on Medium!
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We Found a New Way to Express Love in Our Marriage

Our I Love You board helps us find our way home to love and affirmation.

Also published in P. S. I Love You!
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How to Get the Benefits of Retail Therapy Without Spending Money

When I feel like buying stuff, I turn to online window shopping instead.

Published in Home Sweet Home on Medium

Photo by BBH Singapore on Unsplash

Working Through My Trauma, One Fetish at a Time

What would sexuality even feel like without all this pain?

It's a big deal for me to share this vulnerable story in Human Parts, on Medium.

All That Parenting Advice Works Just as Well on Grown-ups

That adult in your life might just need a nap.

Published in Home Sweet Home on Medium.

Photo by Humphrey Muleba on Unsplash

Patriarchy Chicken is Cool, But I Like This Even Better

Should we teach our daughters to take up space, or to be kind?

My debut for new Medium publication An Injustice!

Photo by Rodrigo De Mendoza on Unsplash

Why I Take My Kid With Me To Protests

Her Lights for Liberty sign read ‘Free Those Kids!’

Published on Medium.

Tzivia and I at Lights for Liberty protest in Port Townsend, WA. (Photo by my husband.)

Right Now, The United States is Running Concentration Camps - Jewish Perspective

Right Now, The United States is Running Concentration Camps

As a Jew, I can tell you Never Again is not just about us.

I just published this on Medium. I kept reading stories about conditions in these US concentration camps, and I needed to raise my voice. Brainstorming what else I can do. I don't want to be a bystander.

Prison Bars with Human Shadow Photo by Ye Jinghan on Unsplash

My Human Parts Debut has gone viral.

In the week since I published I Don't Understand Straight People, Even Though I'm Married to One, it's gotten over 24K views (over 3.4K from Twitter alone) and, by itself, made more money than I'd previously made in a month writing for Medium. Whoa.

More than ever, I understand now that one fantastic piece is worth so much more (to me) than a million okay pieces.

Of course, not everyone's into it. I wrote this piece about the negative feedback I've received and my response to it: I Expected the Homophobic Trolls, But Why Are Lesbians Mad at Me?

I know I just said I realized the power of publishing fantastic stuff--and I'm not really claiming that this response piece fits that description--but I also just really wanted to get my response out there.

Blurred Rainbow Photo by Sharon McCutcheon on Unsplash

I Read an LGBTQ Book to a Room Full of Preschoolers: Heather Has Two Mommies

I Read an LGBTQ Book to a Room Full of Preschoolers

All children deserve stories about all kinds of families.

Published in Home Sweet Home on Medium.

“Celebration of Inclusivity” Painting and Photo by Steve Johnson on Unsplash

I Want to Love You Like the Night We Met

After 10 years, how do we grow together, and not apart?

Published in P. S. I Love You on Medium.

Holding out my hand to you, my love. Photo by JoelValve on Unsplash

This Vegan Wants You to Be a Flexitarian

A do-what-you-can approach, from someone who’s gone all-in.

Published in One Table, One World on Medium.

Photo by Edgar Castrejon on Unsplash

“Can I Touch Your Hair?”

Thanks for asking.

I just published this on Medium.

Curly Hair Photo by Anter Blackbird on Unsplash

If We Care For Robots, Who Will Care For Us?

Embracing AI will leave us empty-handed.

I just published this on Medium, about the time a robot asked me to keep a secret.

Robot Photo by Alex Knight on Unsplash (The one I “met” was a different model.)

Who’s Afraid of a Children’s Book?

I am. But my kid isn’t.

"These images certainly make me feel something. They make me feel anxiety in my whole body, the exact feeling the kid in the book is feeling. So, I believe the art is impressive; it speaks to me. But does it belong in a children’s book?"
Click to read the rest on Medium.

Who's afraid of a children's book? Photo by Alice Alinari on Unsplash

Raising a Vegan Kid in a Non-Vegan World

Some of our friends literally eat their pets.

Published in One Table, One World on Medium.

Little kid with little dog: BFFs Photo by Levi Saunders on Unsplash

Dear Husband: What’s This Fight Really About?

The Great School Lunchbox Debate of 2019

Featured on P. S. I Love You on Medium.

Screenshot: I've got the featured article today on P. S. I Love You!!

When the High Road Turns Out to Be the Best Way Up

When the High Road Turns Out to Be the Best Way Up

Sometimes it literally pays to be kind.

Today's featured article in The Ascent on Medium!

Why I Abandoned A Publication I Struggled to Join

The only time someone blocked me on Medium

I just published this on Medium, about the drama going on with how Jonathan Greene treated Shannon Ashley, and my personal experience with it.

Waving Goodbye Photo by Alexandre Croussette on Unsplash