Kindnessgirl

my kids and their cousins taking over the big fancy pants pbs office with teletubbie horns

I am a writer. I write.

“What??? a writer?” No, writers live in pretty cottages over looking some magnificent body of water. They travel to NYC to meet with agents, editors and publishers… they spend hours drinking wine, eating gourmet cheese while working on their fabulous novels. They only take a break everyday to walk to the end of their tree lined driveway in the woods to find a big fat royalty check in the mailbox. They know how to spell and use proper grammar all the time. They are incredibly fascinating and they all wear black turtlenecks…this is the life of a writer.

The writers are laughing…probably still in their pajamas. I come from a family of writers except I never considered myself one. The internet cracked everything open and suddenly everyone had a chance, like the whole world. My label just changed to “I’m not a real writer.”

Yet still I wrote…hiding quietly in the corner. My life was so simple but sweet and I wasn’t really looking to stretch myself or put it out there. But what if there was something to simple but sweet? What if the everyday, living, being, loving was a treasure? What if being able to articulate that life was my secret superpower I needed to discover?

That meant I might be a writer after all and something about that scared the bejeezus out of me. Then came PBS…My one sister was tearing up the internet by becoming the internet commerce queen
while the other sister was saving the world with her best Rwandan friend and their combined soul magic. Luckily, all my sisters (a third whose very presence lights up and owns every room she enters) deeply believed in me. Even if we absolutely can’t speak to each other or struggle on how to be together, there is a deep belief in each other and love. So Kris asked me if I would like to join she and Jen on a writing gig they were pursuing.

A parenting blog for PBSParents.org

PBS! Home to a soul like Mr. Roger’s, to an institution whose values have held strong for so many years, to a place that deeply cares for children in so many ways that felt so familiar. I couldn’t imagine a better fit for me.

Kris made the pitch…3 sisters, 8 kids, completely different people, different parenting styles all sharing their lives with the world. We got the gig and after months of designing, marketing and planning together, a blog was born:

Supersisters: Because Every Mother Needs a Sister

The thing is…PBS felt like writing home on so many levels. I respect all they stand for, I love my bosses, just being in the PBS building does something to my heart. The values, the care, everything inviting me to allow this part of myself be seen and heard. I will always be forever grateful for what PBS has already given me…

So my doubts about being a writer still swirl, my sisters and I have stress finding our way, and a job is still a job with all the dynamics and flaws like everywhere else but the journey is welcomed and celebrated. and no one wears black turtlenecks.

Come check it out and leave 57,000 comments, I hope you discover all the magic I have found there and more…

love,

the writer