Humanity: Raw & Unfiltered
Something my mother used to say. Or still does, I would imagine. As my youngest brother and I got older, we’d start to wonder out loud what all these little phrases our mother used to say actually meant. I remember us laughing in my car on a two AM highway Read more
Allie Burke is a bestselling author, magazine editor, and mental health advocate. She lives in Los Angeles.
I’ve spent quite a bit of time thinking about the pattern of beliefs that run through my mind. I have noticed that my beliefs are always explaining an emotional “feeling.” When we (I) say things that are declarations about how the world is (actual, “reality,” etc.), I know that those Read more
Chris Gruver is an artist, athlete, model, spiritual journeyer living in Vancouver, BC, far from his old country of somewhere in the southern US. He believes he’s been on the road for about 30 years and has plans only to continue the dream.
A few weeks after the Paris massacre of Friday, November the 13, 2015, I got my first tattoo. It’s the Eiffel tower centered inside the peace sign and wrapped at the top are the words, Joie de vivre ! (joy of life!), a French phrase that speaks of our healthy Read more
My name is Michel Bordeau, aka Area Frenchman. I am a Therapist and an Education Coach in private practice in Atlanta. Born in France, I have spent half my life in the US. I am culturally French and academically American, so you can safely assume that I know a thing or two about love (gender respectful, validating, unconditional, non-threatening) and the pleasures of life (many friends, much cheese, little w(h)ine). When I don't blog about mansplaining, teen assertiveness, guru shaming, toxic work environments and toxic people, motherhood, mindful parenting, immigrant entrepreneurs, bipolar disorder and body dysmorphic disorder, I dedicate my time speaking about the lessons I have learned as a therapist and a coach. I am the host of Le Kindness Couch on Youtube. I created this channel to demonstrate that today's therapeutic modalities are kind, validating, and solution-focused. We don't read mind or blame your mom for everything.
I was 9-months-old when my life turned upside down. It was a couple of days before Christmas when a fire started on the first floor of the apartment building my family and I lived in. My mother was pregnant again and worried for our safety. She decided to go thru Read more
Yadira G Carranza was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. The middle daughter of a blended family, she was 9 months of age when she suffered major burns to her body. Despite this, she was able to thrive. She graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School in El Sereno, California. She was in the Academic Decathlon from 1992-1994, Student Body Vice President in 1993 and Historian in 1994. In 1996, she had her first son Gabriel. In 2000, she relocated to Zacatecas, Mexico where she studied Business Management. In 2004, she married Marco Méndez. In 2006, she graduated from April Love Makeup Academy. In 2014, she became a Notary Public. In 2015, she became a GlossiGirl model.
Your love is tearing me apart. Wide open flood gushes of white, transparent bubble adoration overflowing magnificent from beyond the ether. I didn’t know you, I couldn’t understand how gut-wrenching, excruciating it was for you to say good-bye. I wasn’t even a concept. You knew me already. I was in Read more
A retired, international model, and celebrity makeup artist. Co-Author of Model Citi Zen, the guide. Founder of http://modelcitizenmakeup.blogspot.com/. Author of numerous prose pieces in various literary magazines. Most recently published in Little Episodes Brainstorms the anthology, among esteemed artists Sadie Frost, Melvin Burgess and Todd Swift.
The world seems like it’s spinning out of control, the news can weigh heavy on my soul, and there seems to be a collective pain from all the recent world events. It’s easy to dip my toe in the pool of pain, but I had a second thought to remind Read more
Janine holds a BA cum laude in History from USC, a Professional Certificate in Feature Film Writing from UCLAx, earned with distinction, and an AA with honors in physical science/geology from Pasadena City College. She wrote a bi-weekly newspaper column called "Cyber Culture" about the Internet and culture. Janine worked in radio as a daily on-air announcer in San Francisco and a stringer for ABC radio, interviewing Major League Baseball players and managers. She has extensive journalism skills and wrote PSA’s and commercials for radio and appeared in an Air France print ad with Gene Kelly. Janine has worked in all areas of film/TV production. Along with her love of film/TV/music, Janine has a passion for science and interviewed Nobel Prize winner, Richard Feynman just prior to his death. Fascinated with technology, Janine worked at NASA/JPL as a computer tech for two unmanned spacecraft missions and a military war games simulation project. Recently, Janine completed a feature film action adventure script, Stormstoppers and developed a documentary about Keith Moon, drummer for “The Who.”
Princess cards she sends me with her regards, Oh, bar-room eyes shine vacancy To see her you gotta look hard ―Manfred Mann, For You I had just come off a ten-year stretch of depression, scattered with a few bouts of mania when Dan came into my life. For years I Read more
Dori Owen is a storyteller, writing from small town Arizona, after living a few decades in California as an LA Wild Child, with a brief stop in Reno. She settled into grownup life as a project manager, collecting an MBA and a few husbands along the way. She is a shown artist and her favorite pastime is upcycling old furniture and decor she finds from thrift stores. She lives with the cat who came to visit but stayed. The love of her life is her grown son who lives in Portland, Oregon. Her essays and poems have been published in RAW&UNFILTERED VOL I, StigmaFighters Vol 2, and Love Notes From Humanity. Her blogs have been featured on The Lithium Chronicles, Open Thought Vortex, Sudden Denouement, and The Mighty.
I sat on a chair perched beneath the window of the nurse’s station. Opposite me, a woman had parked herself on one of the grey plastic seats and thrown a blanket over her head, which she peeped out of now and again with just her left eye. An old burgundy Read more
Henrietta Ross is a writer living in rural Scotland. She isn’t good at much but she can spin a good yarn, so she does this on a regular basis. When not writing, she likes to dump her writing in impromptu places for fun, leave local charity shops with a wheelbarrow to transport her books, occasionally try active mediation in a field as she wanders after confused sheep or dances absurdly to cheesy eighties music, because like Rockwell, she thinks somebody IS watching. Henrietta is working on three books, one novel and two non-fiction works. She hopes to finish one of them in this lifetime.
