I Needed to Know This

There are some things that I think should be compulsory on the learning agenda of every child.  It would contribute considerably to the chances of that child arriving at adulthood with their mental health intact.  Of course, it’s easy for me to say. I don’t have children.  Right now I don’t even have fur-kids, but I was a child, and I know that if I had learnt some things earlier on in life it might have helped me in establishing my self-esteem and my sense of having a right to be on this planet.

I was eight years old when I came face to face with the school bully (or one of them).  I was walking home from my best friend’s house after playing with her after school.

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Summer Solstice Girl

Summer Solstice Girl (our Claudia) has posted a major update about her hospitalization and incredibly brave choice over on her blog.  Please go read her story, it’s very important.

[NOT FROM] The Other Side (on) Summer Solstice Musings

Protect Your Words, Your Work, And Yourself

This post is a bit of a deviation from the theme of mental health, but it’s something I like to write about annually, as I feel too few people are aware of how widespread this issue is, what their rights are, and how they can help to keep their work safeguarded.

As you may or may not be know, content theft is one of my hot button issues when it comes to blogging.  Copyrights and licenses are displayed everywhere on this blog, as well as a Copyscape banner (and yes, I actually do use this service). Additionally, each author has a unique copyright for their work on Canvas.  I have personally been to the mat many times with sites that insisted on violating intellectual property rights, and I have won every fight.

An Administrative Decision, A Human Decision

I don’t often dislike being the Canvas admin.  This blog is made up of a group of wonderful, supportive authors who run things themselves pretty much entirely, and I rarely have to actually do anything truly as an admin.

When I do it usually is something I think over at length, and I never like having to interfere.

Today, I positively hate having to interfere.

Every (Wo)man Can Be an Island

Forgive the kitschiness of my title.

I am aware that, technically, there’s no such thing as a person who is an island. Even the most disconnected person has a sliver of contact with the outside world. One has to buy food and so forth.

If you pay attention to my blog, though, you’ll notice I haven’t been around much. For months, posting only sporadically. I have been isolating, you see.

I have spent as much time as possible holing up with myself. Oftentimes I feel irritable when people are around me; I just want them to leave me alone.

To Out Thyself Or Not To Out Thyself

Courtesy of the Canvas Way Back Machine: This piece by Always is very strong, opinionated, and encouraging — but so is she. On living your beliefs, originally published August 2011.
 
By the way, I should mention that while she no longer actively blogs, the author has kindly told me that she is more than happy to field comments on this (or any) piece of hers, as I try out the reblogging experiment.  🙂

You Are Not Alone

Warning:  This post discusses suicide.  Not graphically, and not in detail, but if the topic is triggering to you, you may want to choose not to read it.

Today is 10 September 2013, a day that has been designated World Suicide Prevention Day.  I know that this is a very frightening subject for so many people, with or without mental illness, to talk about.  But do you know what I think is even more frightening than discussing suicide?  Not discussing suicide.

Hide and Seek

This feels a little like my first day of school when I was five, which I loved.  I was so happy to finally be with the bigger kids.  I had wanted to start school a year before, when my brother started, but of course I wasn’t allowed.  But finally I got there.

This is of course, my first post for Canvas, and that is equally exciting.  I’m not 100 per cent sure quite what to expect but I know some of the ‘kids’, and am very happy to be here.  This has been something I have wanted to do for a while, but the time wasn’t quite right.  Now it is, and so I’m here.

I do something a little different from most bloggers.  I use my own name.