When I posted this drawing on Twitter just before New Year’s Eve, it was almost too much for me to bear. Should I really post this silly scan for all 900 of my Twitter geeks to see? Many people were sharing what 2015 meant to them, including resolutions that they will likely drop by March and superlatives about the previous year’s experiences. For me, I had to post this tweet because it was true. Coloring saved my life.
I thought I had lost my creativity and fluidity at moments during 2015—that somehow things had gotten crushed inside. Working in the recovery field as a survivor of a parent struggling with addiction has called attention to my own trauma history. It has also meant that work has come home with me and barged through my office door. I have struggled with self-worth constantly, even well into my 30s and well into my career. Adjusting to my family’s ups and downs, I was uprooted physically from my support network when I moved to the Pacific Northwest six months ago. The unfamiliarity helped to dislodge me.Tom Bardwell
Recent Posts
Know Their Names, by Sarah Green, remembers the victims of the June 17th shooting at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, SC.
“Gender policing, like race based policing, has always been part of this nation’s bloody history.” -- TransJustice, Call to First Annual Trans Day of Action for Social and Economic Justice, 2005
September’s Rolling Stone magazine highlighted the growing problem of LGBT Youth Homelessness in the U.S. The Center for American Progress estimates that between 320,000 and 400,000 LGBT youth experience homelessness at some point each year in this country; overall they comprise about 20 percent of the overall homeless youth population.
