Imagine my utter delight when I learned that at the next PTA meeting, someone would be speaking about the anti-bullying laws in place to protect LGBT and gender creative kids.

Although I’m a card-carrying PTA member, I’ve attended only three PTA meetings in my six years as mother to an elementary-school-aged child. Each time I sat through the meeting feeling like the PTA wasn’t the place for me.

But, hell, if they were going to be discussing LGBT and gender issues, maybe I had been wrong.

I walked into the crowded Multipurpose Room and found a seat in the back corner by myself. I listened as the PTA board and its members ran through the agenda. When they started passionately discussing the nutritional value of whole-wheat goldfish crackers versus original goldfish crackers, I tuned out. I will never argue about goldfish crackers; of that you can be sure.

Finally it…

View original post 984 more words

Untitled

2014/11/15 by mkhana

It’s new and it’s amazing
but it’s also breathtakingly
scary, dealing with the unknown…
yet knowing what’s coming.
The excitement is palpable,
and, yes, the fear is real
but having a chorus of hands
waiting to catch you if
you stumble, fall or both
is supremely uplifting…
Appreciation and astonishment
at the circle that forms around you
welcoming you into the fold…
It’s new.
Amazing.
Breathtaking.

New Day

2014/11/04 by mkhana

Early morning,
dew and orange juice,
grass cutters and
high-pitched ‘good morning’ calls compete with
loud footsteps thundering outside your door.
Sleep beckons you from your bed
pleading with you for five more minutes.
AM news and traffic updates,
coffee cup in hand, heels on straight.
A new day.

Change

2014/10/28 by mkhana

A change is coming,

winds are blowing.

Roots one knew one had

but never realized

how adaptive they could be,

are forming around this change,

roots to hold one still

in the midst of the storm.

A change is coming.

Shadows and Goodbyes

2014/10/10 by mkhana

I said goodbye,

and your blink never happened.

You missed it as my face closed,

and the shadows within my heart,

shuttered over it, inflamed

by your indifference

and your missing awareness.

I remember the moment that

my goodbye became final,

when I realized that no matter

how hard or how long I knocked,

you simply

did not have enough

for me and

for what I needed to chase

these shadows holed up in

this heart.

So, goodbye.

When you wake,

I shall be gone

into the shadows.

Mother, May I…?

2014/10/08 by mkhana

Ebola is something that one can no longer ignore.

From USAID’s blog page on Ebola

USAID notes: Today the world is facing the largest and most-protracted Ebola epidemic in history and President Obama has declared it a top national security priority.

“Faced with this outbreak, the world is looking to us, the United States, and it’s a responsibility that we embrace. We’re prepared to take leadership on this to provide the kinds of capabilities that only America has, and to mobilize the world in ways that only America can do. That’s what we’re doing as we speak.” – President Obama.

I work in public health. I have always known that I would work in the continent. I have also always known that I wanted to work on disaster and emergency response plus management. But I sit on the sidelines and I watch this disease ravage part of the continent. I have tried to find positions that I can volunteer for but it seems like the consensus is that ‘only America’ can save the world from this virus.

I really want to Continue reading →