My February ’22 Top Reads
Medium is for people who, like, want to read
I know February is the shortest month, but I cannot believe it’s almost March. Once again, I have read some truly outstanding pieces here during my second full month on Medium, and I’m so excited to highlight them here!
(I’m listing them in chronological order according to when I read them.)
Harry Stefanakis: “I share this story with clients who need to see that they are just as worthy of care and compassion as others and that compassion for themselves does not diminish their kind and generous spirit but enhances it. Practices in self-compassion help and they can be quite simple.”
Dr. Jorge J Rodriguez V: “So when I say another world is possible it’s because history is riddled with examples of people who didn’t accept their current order and attempted to live otherwise. Some succeeded, some were repressed, but they tried, they dreamed, they hoped. Why can’t we?”
“Nerves never stopping decorated sleeves in veins and arteries tattered, tired, and torn.”
“As someone so tied to the Afrofuturist aesthetic, Janelle Monae has had a long-standing reputation as a visionary artist and out-of-the-box creative. But so little of that recognition has gone to acknowledging what she’s doing culturally when it comes to depictions of queer Black womanhood and the way our sexuality takes shape.”
Kavya Janani. U “More acceptance / more pressing foreheads together / more belly laughs /”
Harry Stefanakis: “The human response to fragmentation is to shift into protection and survival mode. In survival mode, our mind-body system constricts and narrows, keeping us stuck in unhealthy patterns. Psychologist Stephen Gilligan has succinctly referred to this state as neuromuscular lock.”
Gina Denny: “In addition to all this, I tracked my hours for two school years. Field trips, fundraisers, performances, weekend intensives, extra rehearsals, tutoring, parent meetings, etc. All the stuff I was expected but “not required” to do. For the 2017–18 school year, it was 640 additional hours (12 hours per week) and in the 2018–19 school year, it was just shy of 800 (15 hours per week). Even though I was required through my contract to work around 45 hours per week, I really clocked somewhere between 57 and 70 hours per week.”
Trista Signe Ainsworth: “When I found mint sprigs sprouting up to greet me, I delighted in their fresh scent wafting through the wisps of cold, clear air. Kneeling down to experience life was like a prayer to the universe.”
James Finn “I interviewed each of them by phone, separately and more than once, before this story blew up and before O’Brien’s claims about a district policy were exposed as false. They independently volunteered to me that O’Brien told them about that policy. Neither had reason to be untruthful, because they assumed the policy was real. When they learned it wasn’t, they realized they’d been lied to….As Tyler put it Tuesday night at the board meeting, ‘Your lack of regard for student safety, mental health and well being, and feeling welcome and included has shown truly where your priorities lie.’”
Barack Obama: “There may be some economic consequences to such sanctions, given Russia’s significant role in world energy markets. But that’s a price we should be willing to pay to take a stand on the side of freedom. For over the long term, we all face a choice, between a world in which might makes right and autocrats are free to impose their will through force, or a world in which free people everywhere have the power to determine their own future.”
Amanda Laughtland: “Books showed me versions of reality in which that I wouldn’t be alone as a queer person, and they helped me understand what lesbian love actually meant. Before I read novels like these, I only knew the disparaging terms and descriptions, not what love was like between women at all.”
I was just trying to explain what Medium is to a friend. I said:
“It’s a social media site but for people who, like, want to read, not just look at pictures — and without ads!”
Thank you all for another fantastic month of reading!
E. Katherine Kottaras holds an M.A. in English and an M.S. in Kinesiology with a focus on Integrative Wellness, and she is a contemplative writer and holistic teacher, having worked at the middle, high school, and community college levels for over two decades. She is a yoga teacher, personal trainer, and health coach while also living with invisible illnesses and neurodivergence, and as such, she is passionate about mindfulness, bodily self-determination, and health equity. As the queer daughter of an immigrant, Katherine believes that holistic and inclusive approaches to expression, healing, and growth should be accessible to all.
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