Francesca Flood, Ed.D.
Bio
Author of Learning to DANCE with Your Demons. Her narrative comes from a place of truth and a constant striving to be and do better. Writing is a passion, a privilege, and a means to transmit stories, impart knowledge, and share narratives.
Stories (17/0)
The Diner
Her head is rocking in time to the blaring sound of Aerosmith's "Walk this way." She lets go of the steering wheel to play a little air guitar riff. The thumping bass prickles her skin as her leg rests against the speaker. Candace Blythe is cruising along at 80 MPH on I-40 through the longest stretch of the old Route 66 heading to Kingman. She announces to the empty cab of her Ram 1500 that she is not getting any kicks on Route-66 and chuckles at her own silliness.
By Francesca Flood, Ed.D.3 years ago in Humans
Trauma and The Phoenix
Life is good. The goal is to hold tight and keep this thought in front of you because sometimes it's not. If you've lived sufficient time on planet Earth, this statement will mean something to you. If it doesn't, prepare for it. We often discover that life is a flame, and we are its paper. We either become scattered ash – or a rising phoenix. I've often wondered what differentiates between the two. Is it simply a matter of being optimistic, resilient, or knowing that the good times will outweigh the bad in totality? For some people, yes. For others, not so much.
By Francesca Flood, Ed.D.3 years ago in Psyche
There Will Always Be Trolls
It doesn’t matter who you were, are, or who you are about to become. Nor does what you’ve done, are doing, or about to do matter. There will always be Trolls in your life. No, not the cutesy kind they invented for children. These real-life ogres can be strangers, friends, and yes, even your family. They will pounce to add nasty comments on social media, creep around the water cooler at work, or sit at the dining room table making snide remarks. They are quick to criticize, highlight a flaw, and well, are just mean-spirited and nasty.
By Francesca Flood, Ed.D.3 years ago in Psyche
The Self-Esteem Puzzle
Imagine buying a 5,000-piece puzzle only to assemble it and realize there were only 4,950 in the box. That would suck. Why? Because while we might be able to use our imagination to fill in the missing pieces, it’s still not whole. You know it and those around you will also know pieces are missing.
By Francesca Flood, Ed.D.3 years ago in Motivation
Learning to D.A.N.C.E. with Your Demons
Life is a dance. Sometimes we choose the music and glide nimbly across the floor. Often, we are ill-prepared for the tune that turns on. We stumble over our own feet or find someone else stepping on them. We dance alone, choose a partner, and become part of a familial, professional, and/or social troupe. At times, we lead, we follow, dance with giddiness, or cannot wait to get off the floor.
By Francesca Flood, Ed.D.3 years ago in Psyche
The Man, the Myths, the Mystery…Tesla
When we hear the name, “Tesla” the majority of us might associate it with Elon Musk’s iconic and impressive line of electric cars. Yet Mr. Musk was giving a nod to the namesake behind these innovative vehicles – Nikola Tesla. Among his many other innovations, Tesla invented the architecture of AC induction motors, the basis of the Tesla car. Indeed, Elon Musk believes that Nikola Tesla deserves more credit than he receives in our current society. Many agree.
By Francesca Flood, Ed.D.3 years ago in FYI
The Ambassador
The caressing fingers of chocolate icing drip down the sides of the golden, fluffy doughnut. Like so many other things in his life, Jack Toll can’t resist it. Looking from left to right he moves like a bandit, snatches it from its box, and wraps his lips around it. He preens the chocolate residue from his fingers with cat-like precision.
By Francesca Flood, Ed.D.3 years ago in Humans
5 Lessons on How to Live –
About 15 years ago, I experienced a dangerous combination of existential crisis and the Dark Night of the Soul. No meaning in life and no God to comfort me. I was running from life - not to it and there’s a huge difference. I was angry. As the southern saying goes, “I was losing my religion;” at the end of my rope. Volunteering in hospice care beckoned. After all, I was dying. Not in a literal sense but in a major psychological and emotional way. Who better to commiserate with and where better to hide from the world than amongst those who were on the same trajectory? It turns out that living with the dying saved me. Through this experience, I learned how to live, to shed cloaks of darkness, to see the value of time, and to understand priorities. Though it was my experience, this is their story. These are some of the lessons they shared. I distilled them to the five most important.
By Francesca Flood, Ed.D.3 years ago in Longevity
Wick or Fuse
The inspiration for this narrative comes from a very unusual source – a dream. It was not your typical run-of-the-mill dream where you assemble fragments to remember it. No, this was a vivid dream ̶ if in fact a dream at all: Patsy Ramsey, the now-deceased mother of Jon Benet, a six-year-old murdered in her Boulder home on Christmas day 1996, had visited me. I never met Mrs. Ramsey. Like many others, I knew her only through news reports, photographs, and reading the Ramsey story. I remember at the time wondering what had happened to the talented and beautiful little girl whose whole life was ahead of her. I also remember that the police did not seem remotely interested in any other suspects than her parents. Instead, they fed the media, whose job in turn was to convince the public that the Ramseys were guilty. Years later, many still try to justify their rush to judgment by maintaining the Ramseys’ guilt. It is how we soothe our conscience – rather than admit we are wrong. In an astonishing, almost unprecedented move, in 2008, two years after Patsy Ramsey died from cancer ̶ and possibly a broken heart ̶ the Boulder District Attorney sent John Ramsey a letter exonerating his family. Apparently, new DNA evidence had ruled out the family and implicated an unknown person.
By Francesca Flood, Ed.D.3 years ago in Motivation
