Truth's Reward

The truth will not hurt for long if you are willing to accept it. Acceptance takes both vulnerability and strength. Recovery, health and growth are on the other side. Come on. It's worth it. Honest.

MSW Student Research

And when it is your job to teach graduate students to conduct social work research - that is, to ask research questions with social work relevance, to deeply understand phenomena as well as vulnerable and invisible populations, and to use scientifically rigorous methods to explore curiosity - sometimes really beautiful things happen.

Here is a link to an interview with MSW students talking about what inspired their study:

http://sundial.csun.edu/2017/04/grad-students-present-student-sex-worker-research-in-nyc-conference/

This photo is from the study and was used in the article above...

Irene

She was a force of nature.

She made friends everywhere – the doctor’s waiting room, la carniceria, at church on Tuesdays, Fridays and twice on Sundays.  

She was always feeding someone, helping someone, flirting with someone, driving someone, taking care of someone, teasing someone and praying for someone.

She liked bagre from Siete Mares, mangos, Hershey’s chocolate bars, bananas, esponjas de chocolate, and café con leche in a glass measuring cup.

She was my best friend, the thorn in my side, mi corazon, mi bruja y mujer (she loved it when I called her those names because of the deep meaning of those identities), and madre de mi alma.
Unless you met her, these words might appear like puro hyperbole and exaggeration. If you knew her, you know that my words are la pura neta.

Do you realize that you have the most beautiful face
Do you realize we're floating in space,
Do you realize that happiness makes you cry
Do you realize that everyone you know someday will die

And instead of saying all of your goodbyes, let them know
You realize that life goes fast
It's hard to make the good things last
You realize the sun don't go down
It's just an illusion caused by the world spinning round

Songwriters: Dave Fridmann / Michael Ivins / Steven Drozd / Wayne Coyne

Dissemination of Dissertation Research

After the research is done, it's time to disseminate it far and wide.

I'm presenting about "Family Communication Styles, PTSD and Resilience" at this UCLA (my alma mater) conference next month...

 

Here's a conference where I spread the good news about family communication at another alma mater...

Happy Easter!

Love is in the details.

My daughter baked this carrot cake from scratch. She finely ground the carrots because she says there is nothing worse than biting into carrot cake and getting a chunk of carrot in your mouth. She asserts, "It takes away from the cake moment."

She then shaped the cake into the form of a carrot using marshmallow fondant, which she made from scratch.

From concept to execution, there is a lot of love in every detail. That's my girl.

Clear to Negotiate

The cool thing about vision boards is that you get vividly clear about exactly what you want.
This is handy when you are negotiating with an individual, organization or the Universe.

Negotiation is any communication in which you are attempting to achieve...
...the approval
...the acquiescence (the reluctant acceptance of something without protest)
...or the action of someone else.

Negotiation has been described as a conversation in which positions are stated in order to find one that everyone can accept (think, "I can live with that.").

Some posit that you are unlikely to get everything that you want so prioritize, that is, know what is more important and what is less important. In this way, it is easier to choose which outcomes to give up in order to achieve the more important ones.

Now this is important: Know your Limit.
What would be the worst possible offer made by the other side that would still be acceptable to you?
When the other side in a negotiation offers less than your limit and sticks to that as the final offer, you know that it is better to walk away than to accept the offer.
Decide on your limit before beginning to negotiate.
All I gotta do is glance at my vision board to know what this is.
Keep walking away from the table until the right offer shows up.
It will show up and you will know it when it does because it will match the vivid and detailed picture of the brighter future you have been conjuring up with your vision board.

Have fun visioning and negotiating.