All posts of flourish

Our Relationship to Our Bodies: Kanaan Rhodes

By Kanaan Rhodes For me, tattoos enhance my perception of my appearance. I got my first tattoo when I was 18 years old. It was a simple design, but it started a lifelong journey to decorate my body — now, I have more than 50. The feeling of empowerment that comes from getting a new […]
4 months ago

Our Relationship to Our Bodies: Susan Winkler

I have a love-hate relationship with my body. Because I hate being disabled. But on the other hand, there’s always a worse-case scenario, someone that’s worse than I am. And sometimes, mentally, it affects me, even after 20 years, but I have ups and downs with life, like anyone does. But I’m thankful that I […]
4 months ago

Caring for Yourself: When you realize you won’t be able to have children

By T. Rayme Keenan, LCSW Growing up in the culture of the Heartland, we often learn faith, hard work and family are the most important values. But what happens when, as an adult, we’re unable to recreate this reality we grew up with, specifically due to infertility? What happens when, as women, we’re unable to […]
4 months ago

Michelle Mia Antallan: What have you been thinking lately?

Thank you for being the first early inspiration in my life; being the first grandchild allowed me to have all the perks (and favoritism, I think) to learn from you. I am very far away from home and you are getting older; I can’t stop thinking about having fears of you getting sick or something […]
7 months ago

Johniqua Fort: What have you been thinking about lately?

A timeless letter from your mama … I’ve started this letter over and over countless times. Few times on paper, several times in my head. A simple question of, “What is something you’ve been thinking about lately?” turns out to be not so simple, honestly, because I am always thinking about everything. If I had […]
7 months ago

Anwyn Suhr: What have you been thinking about lately?

Do you ever catch yourself getting lost in the past? It’s been a bad habit of mine lately. Today, I filmed a beautiful wedding in this old cathedral full of artwork, sculptures, intricate wood carvings. And as I observed each work, each Biblical painting, each deliberate carving of the sculptures, I found myself lost in […]
7 months ago

Leni Santoro: What have you been thinking lately?

Perhaps it is because spring has come that I have been thinking about when you were little and we would plant the garden together. Or perhaps it was seeing the way the sun shone on the grass after the early morning rain shower, releasing into the day a thousand small, shining glimmerings of a garden […]
7 months ago

Olivia Cisneros: What have you been thinking lately?

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how to keep the peace — less on the world-peace scale, but more so on the societal scale. One type of peace helps protect the country, but the other helps protect the camaraderie in our everyday lives. But this is challenged when we fight over opinions. Opinions, by […]
7 months ago

Childlike Wonder: It’s summertime — have fun!

Modeling by Altyn Timlin Photos and art direction by Aaron Eisenhauer Intro, styling and art direction by Mia Pohlman Long stretches of pretending to be spies or riding bikes in driveway circles or reading Harry Potter outside under the tree with our sib- lings, sweat matting locks of hair to our necks, a timelessness of […]
7 months ago

Turn Up the Music: Playlists for your summer of wonder

By Jasmine Jones When I listen to Lana Del Rey’s “Lust for Life” album, I see my teenage self, strapped into my parents’ mini van’s backseat, staring out the window at a blur of Californian desert. My family was returning from a road trip to Los Angeles that summer when she released the album, and […]
7 months ago