Author: daniellekuhl

As I was sobbing to my therapist over Zoom last week, she looked at me with compassionate eyes and said many things that culminated in something like, “What would it look like to practice radical acceptance of yourself, your work, and the world?” And my honest answer was, “I have no idea, and frankly that…

I accept that I am tired beyond tired.  That my desire to soak up and experience all that life has to offer makes me resent and neglect the rest I so desperately need.  I accept that I will never accomplish everything I set out to do each and every day.  That I have limits, even…

Today I watched a woman walk down the streetand was reminded of the ache of longing that used to consume me in moments like those. She was everything I believed wasn’t:lovely, proud, carefree, confident – perfect.I would make up a story about her,one that convinced me that being her would make it all okay – would make…

Clouds hang lowover mountainous landin the long and melancholic lightof evening.  They linger herereaching down tentative tendrilsbrushing along ridges and valleys seeking out quiet spaces. And in the distance blue skies beckonwaiting like a promiseof the good that is to comeuntil earth and sky are one once more. 

Seeds hold destiny in their tiny bodies.  All that is to come packed in tightwaiting for its moment to burst forthand become. We blended our compactness togetherand made new seeds.  A life. One of togetherness.  One of flesh.  The expressions of our devotionworriestendernesschallengeshope. Look my love –look what our seeds made: Pure, incandescent radiance.  Out…

Dear fellow Layman, or rather, Laypeople, First, some gentle clarification.  I am not using the terms layman/laypeople as a means to put down or degrade your humanity. I too am a layperson in more facets and ways in my life than I am not. I too know far, far less than I actually do know…

Once upon a time a little girl was born.  Time passed, life happened, the little girl “grew up” and became a woman.  Along the way a story was created, one that the woman carries deep inside of her, and it goes like this: A child sits with her back to a wall. Her crisscrossed form…

At this point it has become cliché to say that New Years and the oft accompanying resolutions are cliché as well – perhaps even acknowledging this is cliché – and yet… here we are. As someone who has spent her life making and chasing one resolution after the next, I have deep and conflicting feelings…

Most days, for me at least, teaching feels manageable, doable, and yes, even in this climate, hopeful.  And then there are days like Tuesday…  Days where you look around and everything and everyone feels miserable and impossible. When the true insanity of what we, as educators, are being asked to do really sinks in and…

Last Monday, in my 7th grade ELA class, I introduced a weekly creative writing practice that I decided to call “Nourishing Notes.” We have done many small writing prompts before, but they tend to be inconsistent and constantly “pushed” to accommodate the other million and one things we are asked to do with our kids…