Voices

So how do I cope with stress and anxiety? What do I do to quiet my noisy, nagging brain when I just can’t take it anymore? The simple answer is it depends on the day.

Life is hard work, and I think we all know this with varying degrees of certainty. It’s grueling, it’s relentless, it’s at times unforgiving, and it is always a damn hustle. So if you want a piece of coffee cake, get that cake, girl.

By bringing people together to share food and conversation, the Rafeeqi family are creating opportunities for non-Muslims to expand their knowledge of the Muslim faith.

If god was outside of time itself, how could she be restrained by modern American gender norms?

As a breast cancer survivor, the worst day of the year is when I go for my mammogram. True, nobody actually likes mammos, but I’ve been bitten by one. On the way to my annual squishing, I realized that I have a bunch of coping strategies.

My phone is now silent by design, but I’m still nostalgic for the days when single people met off-line. I long for genuine closeness and sustained concentration, including my own. I’ve become a person who is perturbed if I text and receive a phone call in reply. I’ve gotten lax in making in-person time for people when I have the ability to consume snippets of their lives online between Netflix originals.

I can't do this on my own. This life thing, this parenting thing, this figuring out how to make it all work thing? Yeah, those things. I can't. And what's more is I don't think any of us are meant to. It's time to shed the taboo around asking and receiving help.

Nothing is ever a mistake.