humanity

Humanity begins at home.

Craptastic!
A lot of what I've learned this year is that you can either make mistakes or you can have happy little accidents. I bought a box of cookie mix today. My son and I were supposed to make bat cookies for Halloween. It came with a powdered mix, a cookie cutter, and two different colors of frosting. All we needed was a large egg and 4 tablespoons of butter. Easy, right? Well, being an enthusiastic seven-year-old, he was incredibly excited to be baking with Momma and he threw the stick of butter into the powder mix with an egg in it before I had a chance to melt the butter. So, I decided, whatever, let's try to blend it up anyways. I put the forks I’d had out away and grabbed my electric mixer.
By Lolly Vieira5 years ago in Families
From rags to riches: Ken Williams Story
"Up. Down.1 - 2!" The short old man in exercise outfit with a towel draped over his right shoulder screamed out at me. I was doing sit-ups and getting prepared for my upcoming fight. I have gone undefeated for three years; I am what the world knows as an ultimate fighter. In a month, I was finally getting my shot at the heavyweight crown of MMA. I am matched up against my former ally. "You're worthless. You can't defeat the heavyweight champ. You should go home and play house." The same old man bellowed out in his gymnasium to me. "No. I can't quit. I won't." as I let that out, I trained harder and faster. My story doesn't start from there. I wasn't always a fighter.
By Samuel5 years ago in Families
BFF
My name is Tania. I am 40 years old, and I feel great. I feel much better than I did many, many years ago. Life might be hard for us sometimes, especially when there are unexpected changes. Caring for someone you love, with a mental illness, can be very challenging. I was always stuck wondering, "how can you take care of someone with this horrible disease?" Your heart will break into many pieces when you learn there's no cure for it. I would like to know and reach out to caregivers who care about a loved one with Alzheimer's disease. I want to do anything and everything that I can to help find a cure for this disease.
By Tania M. Cortez Hamilton5 years ago in Families
The Power Of Silence
I can’t say if there was a singular moment when I realized there is power in the silence that hangs between words or if that lesson was learned over time as a way of survival, but in listening to that silence and watching others move through it, it has helped me to see them as they are. Not as they wish to be seen. At times those moments can hold more truth than words. So when a boy once described me as “alarmingly disarming” I smiled a quiet smile and let him continue as I had learned to do long ago. Was it my silence that kept him talking, sharing, and revealing? I’m not sure. I’ve never been certain as to why people tear themselves open in front of me. I simply accept it along with their truths and perhaps therein lies the answer, but who’s to say.
By Ezra 5 years ago in Families
A Likely Time to Die
I don't know if I was dreaming or not. It's all too much a blur. Just three hours removed from shutting my eyes after getting home late from a concert, my ears still pulsating from hard rock anthems, another piercing sound shattered the silence of a very early Monday morning.
By Kelly Westeen5 years ago in Families
THE CASTE
Caste is determined by birth in respect to where and whose family you are born in. You can't deny your caste whether you like it or not. In our Asian society, your character is judged on the basis of your caste. You are ranked and categorized whether you are fit to certain criteria or not according to your caste. That means that if you are born poor you are going to be poorer, same as in rich people because social status is judged by the caste system.
By Nisha Thulung Rai5 years ago in Families
What is Life
Is life defined by the oxygen we breathe or the breeze we feel on our human skin? Is it the individuals we meet who we come to love and appreciate, or the human souls who torment our worn-out hearts?
By S. Spencer5 years ago in Families
What is home?
Think about what it means. Materialism to family; working the nine to five. Fighting tooth and nail for benefits without the benefit of considering the balance betwixt family and business. We all thrive to work hard, compete sometimes even; over who is the hardest. Circle depending, words written; aren't utterly extended with no sustenance. Experience, from mistakes both in home and the biological processes, work force and just general living. What it takes to be a sibling, father, son, brother, cousin, lover, fighter, amateur scientist, musician, writer, handyman, former business owner. It takes a work-home equilibrium. Knowledge of the cerebellum, the analyzing patterns of the behavior that only works. If you know thy self, and climb the broad spectrum of all there is in being human. Physical,mental,emotional, spiritual, multi-cultural generational transcendence of stupendous amounts of how-to's. Drive to learn, well enough, to set healthy boundaries. Research until the search humbles you until zen. Willingly, consciousness- humility to alleviate the pretentious, precarious, pragmatic, problems, python, precisely, pinch points. Pin plots proscribed punctually to cite thoughts counter-productive to one's state of being. What's all these words and worth reading, when idea isn't even articulated clearly?
By Reece A Kohn5 years ago in Families
Yellow House
There are many moments in life worthy of reflection. Sometimes they're small and very much rooted in the present, like standing on the shore and
By Aseret5 years ago in Families
First Taste of Fear Part 2
This is the second nightmare of mine Im sharing. My mom... I wanted her there. I would've given anything to be enough for her. She just couldn't. Some people don't know what it means to sacrifice for anyone/anything even their children. I still don't quite understand what she was doing that was so much better. I know she likes stupid men. But so do I haha. It's not funny but that shits funny. Whatever. It runs in the family I guess. More on this in later stories. For now, onto my dream.
By Amaya DreamDriven5 years ago in Families
Estrangement to the Rescue
"You can't stay here anymore." My mother plainly stated while loading a Marlboro Light between her lips. "I don't know what to tell you. You aren't welcome here anymore." The unlit cigarette bounced from the corner of her mouth. She angrily muttered to herself as she looked for a lighter. The kitchen table was in disarray. Peeking out from under a stack of papers was a blank matchbook. I picked them up. SHE YANKED THEM FROM MY HAND before I could offer them to her. "Give that to me." She demanded. The smell of sulfur filled the air. The kitchen overflowed with lingering smoke under fluorescent light. Puffing away as she carried on. But I wasn't listening anymore.
By Kaneene Pineda5 years ago in Families
Coincidence
T - 10 years When I want to tell you how our story together started, I would have to go back in time to a tiny bedroom, where the 17-year-old me lied on the top of a bunk bed and read a book. That wasn't an unusual sight. I was always reading books.
By Helen Olivier5 years ago in Families