Another simple thought...

I am not usually one to post so many photos or quotes, but the description here rings true.

I have spent a great deal of time reading about what makes a child more likely to be bullied, and the folks with empathy, who want those around them to be happy, and work to put others first, are the most likely to be deeply hurt in bullying.

So please, look around you, and notice those who need someone to stand beside them.  You can both work for good together!

Who Needs 'Em?

This is so much easier said than done.  Still, it is true.  We don't live for or through the bullies.  We live for ourselves- for the people we want to be- for the world we want to make.The bullies are nothing in the face of good, strong people who want a better world!

We matter... You matter... Not the bullies... They don't matter in your life.

I have had so many things I have thought to share here on this blog, but not always the words.  Rarely the words, in fact.  I spent time with a friend last night, and we talked about how unbelievable it is that the establishment seems to allow those who bully to bend the system and have far more rights than those they have abused and continue to abuse.
They don't call it the bully pulpit for nothing.  So often those folks are allowed to say things everyone knows cannot possible be true and run others off in hurt from their lies.  Even when the establishment supposedly has stepped up to try to stop them.
As we look forward to a new year, I saw this quote and thought to share.  I know this is far easier said than done.  How have you been able to stop letting the bullies affect your life?  Any tricks to share?  Ideas?  It would be wonderful to see a forum on this following the post.
Hugs to all.  This is a log road.  But we can build a better world.   Our children, our friends and we, too- deserve it.

Something we should always keep in mind.

One survivor's story...

A friend of mine from school corresponds with me on Facebook.  After i began writing about our experiences and what we learned,working on sharing to help others, she began sharing with me about her own experience and how torn they had been in trying to stand up to the bully.  As a survivor, she has a very powerful story, one that speaks to just how hard it is to find the right path to survive and thrive after bullying and harassment.  To my friend, my heartfelt thanks for sharing.  To our readers, I hope it gives you another perspective in your own journey.  If you would like to share as well, we welcome guest bloggers here, to broaden perspective and learn together.  Thanks!




Bullying can lead to PTSD


I am 37 and suffer from PTSD, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.  It all started in 2002 when I got married and we bought our first home and moved next to “the neighbor from hell.”  We had only been living there a week when we received an anonymous letter on our door threatening us because according to the letter we had cleaned off our drive way and had send dirt down the way to our neighbors.  The thing is we don’t clean off our driveway or sidewalks with the hose because we grew up in a drought and don’t waste water like that.


Six months later we very tastefully landscaped our yard and our neighbor didn’t like it and then for the next 4 years he would yell at me, threaten to kill me, throw stuff in our yards, etc.  He tried to petition to get rid of us, but due to there is no HOA we didn’t do anything wrong. And it wasn’t like we had funky lawn art or pink flamingos in our yard. We didn’t cement in our yard and make a parking lot. Our yard was very typical of other yards in our neighborhood, and was actually a copy of a yard down the street that got praised in the local paper for being beautiful and drought tolerant.


He did find some people to back his claim and as they walked the neighborhood taunting me I no longer felt welcomed and feared trying to make friends with other neighbors, as I was afraid they would lash out at me too. (A few years later we found out his biggest follower and our other harasser was arrested for being a Pedophile.) 


At first we just turned the other cheek and didn’t say anything. Because isn’t that what we are taught in church. If you have nothing to say don’t say anything at all? We were nice and polite.  We knew he was in the military and was home on disability.  In addition his wife really wanted to have a baby, but couldn’t get pregnant.   So tried to be empathetic and hoped that soon he’d stop taking his anger out on me/us.  He didn’t stop and things escalated.  


Finally my husband went over there to talk to him and he told my husband to beat me into line, as that is what he does and it works.  


Later we found an odd substance in our back yard that was obviously put there by the neighbor so I called the police. They came and I told them what had been going on and due to it was only my word against his they couldn’t do anything. They said if he threatened my life again I could call them up and they would put them in a holding cell over night. That was all they could do. They suggested we move.  Like you we didn’t want to let him push us around and win so we stayed.


For four years I feared for my life every day. I was afraid to go outside. I stayed home with all the widows and doors locked and the alarm set. If I went out side I took my phone with me and was on it talking to someone just so I won’t feel so alone and someone would witness my death if it came to that. When I had to leave the house I would turn the car on in the garage, lock the doors, open the garage door and then pull out. When I came home I would pull in to the garage close the door, turn off the car and then get out.


It’s been 8 years since he moved and I’m still dealing with PTSD.  


I regret not moving.  We didn’t do it at the time because we didn’t want to let him win, it would have been expensive and a hassle.  Looking back we know that the cost and hassle would have been worth my sanity. My husband also regrets not standing up to him more in the beginning.


Last year I moved and my PTSD is better, the house and yard isn’t there to trigger it every day, but it still isn’t all gone. 






I post what I do, hoping to help someone not feel so alone.


I hope it will help.






Again, many thanks to my friend for sharing her story!

Lessons Learned... Part Four... Find an Advocate

Along the journey of survival for us, we have learned different things from different people.  The day I was called by the sheriff, and raced back to the school, spending all that time with the dean, she told me my daughter felt completely alone in facing the bullies at school and in the activities where they had taken root.  Knowing your mama is talking you through strategies just isn't always enough.  The dean of students had told my girl that she would be willing to be her advocate, to be with her to help talk to teachers where the bullying was rampant in the classroom.

I think the dean meant well, but in the end, when the folks who were so unkind to my daughter pretended to change their ways and said they were looking after her, the dean believed them, and my daughter felt more alone.  In the end, the teacher where she had felt safe made sure my daughter had a place she could go.  And some very special youth circled around her and let her know she was theirs, no matter what those other people might say about her.  It gave her the first safe place to begin to put the pieces back together, and to be reminded that she really did matter, not just those folks who were allowed to belittle and use profanity at others because they were somehow special and had their own set of rules and exceptions.
 
Not feeling like the person who had offered to act as her advocate was really genuine, made her retreat into the circle of the few places she felt safe.  That made it take longer for her to stand up and fight for herself and  claim her place where intellectually she knew she had a right to, but where other people had been able to use and abuse her.

Recently, we went in to meet with someone about her scheduling for school.  I was perfectly honest, that I had given the year over to survival and getting her feet back under her.  I wasn't happy with having to do so, but so many of the people, both in leadership at the extracurricular where it all had began and at the school where things had spilled into, had been too busy to follow through with things that while they would have made more work for my daughter and myself, would have given her a chance to be safe and still excel.

As we sat speaking with this nice woman who had been the only one trying to follow through, she apologized for how so many had dropped the ball and let the behaviors perpetuate.  She had had her own child go through bullying, and understood my feeling that while my child needed to be held academically accountable for what she had done when she shut down, the classroom should be a safe place.

I am well aware that life isn't fair.  We have lived that reality for some time.  But what we need is a chance for her to work at getting her feet back under her, where she can be safe and work for what she wants.  The woman we met with agreed with us.  She helped advocate for my daughter to take placement exams to qualify for a different academic track with more advanced science courses.  (She had a greater background in some science classes due to some outside experience).  While my daughter would still see those youth, and their parents, and those people will likely continue to spread the rumors and lies, she won't have their games at every turn, or the oppressive interruptions to her academic day.  While we cannot change the world, we can make a corner of it happier and safer while she works to put the pieces back together and have steady ground to stand on.

So while no one can snap their fingers and fix the injustice, and no one deserves to have their lives hijacked by the self-important unkindness of others, finding an advocate- one that is truly an advocate- can help you to survive and begin to put the pieces back together.  The first one to present them self isn't always the right one, but keep trying.  The future is worth it.

Who said these guys were not cute!?!

So many serious posts, I had to share this fun one!  And, next post to come is about finding and advocate, as opposed to finding just finding someone to exact revenge for you.  Not that we couldn't always use a laugh!

Lessons Learned... Part Three

I began with something we did right, followed it with something of hindsight, so now I believe I should follow with a tip I learned along the way.

As a parent, I tried hard to be calm and help my child walk through the situation as long as she could, thinking as long as I was there and she said she could handle it, that I should let her learn to deal with people and learn to stand up for herself but comport herself with manners, like the person she wanted to be, and not run.

And yet, there I was, the day the sheriff called me to discuss the welfare of my child, feeling like the worst failure of a mama.  I took the call from the sheriff about a call to the school where a friend of hers felt that she was at breaking point, and had gone to a teacher they both trusted, and the teacher had called in the sheriff.  The sheriff called me as I left the doctor's office from a pre-op appointment with my aunt.  I raced back to the school.  After speaking with the sheriff, my daughter had unloaded everything to the school's dean.

Sitting with the dean, I fought the urge to pull the children, head home and lock the gates of the property.  Discussing everything, the dean seemed to understand that what had happened outside of the school, the vicious bullying, had also bled over into at least one class at the school.  I wanted her removed from the class, having tried repeatedly to address things with the teacher.  The school felt things at the school could be handled with classroom management, and I could address the outside things.  The dean reminded me to not fall apart in front of the children, and that perhaps my daughter needed to stick to her extracurriculars at the school, where they saw the value of the dedicated team player that she is.

I checked in with my daughter before leaving the school, she excused herself to get the water bottle she had left in my car and we talked a few minutes about being thankful for real friends who had her back, and she said she wanted to stay at the school for the day.  I didn't know at that moment just how special those real friends were.

I left the school, and went straight to the office of the group that oversees the extracurricular which had been at the heart of this mess.  This extracurricular had been a huge part of the lives of both my daughter and son, and even as the stress had built and we had dreaded the meetings for dealing with the gossiping bitties and increasing bully behavior, the children hadn't wanted to give it up.  My son had wanted, as the worst of the attacks unfolded, for me to stop them from doing this to my daughter, but I couldn't make them stop, they had lied to enough people and tried to cover their tracks well enough that it would still be another couple weeks before I knew just how thickly the lies were layered.  They really still are, to be honest.  They went to so many people of a period of time, laying down allegations of lies to such an extent that so many believed them, despite the fact that they had never once looked into the truth of their allegations.

I didn't fully unload on the leadership I met with that day.  I had been told by the bullies that they had believed the lies and signed off on sanctions against my daughter, and were told to be concerned about my son.  I struggled to stay as calm as possible, trying to figure out whether I should press charges directly with the sheriff, just pull the children and run, or try to enable her to stand up, hold her head high and walk into the remaining meetings of the year, so she wasn't somehow admitting to anything untrue by running.

As I sat there at the table with these two leaders, they both listened.  One had a daughter at one of the service academies, who had gone through bullying at the hands of an adult in a sport a few years back.  He acknowledged my worry.  He said she would come out of it better if she was part of the decision in what to do.  They gave me a few options, and said they would be glad to sit with my daughter to talk things through to help her decide her direction.

I didn't feel any better, but I did try to work with that.  I know all this isn't over and that there really isn't any closure, but I do know that I believe it helped her to make each decision with us, day by day.  When she chose to walk into a meeting that following weekend, knowing they would stare at her, and point and gossip in whispers, her father, brother and I walked in there with her.  The night before, she hadn't slept, and I had looked at my husband in the morning and asked when was the time to step in and stop it all.  We each spoke with her, and she seemed adamant about going through with it, that she would not give them a chance to bad mouth her that day without seeing her stand up.  So in we all walked, flanking her and standing there as a family. When they tried to be uncharacteristically nice, as fake as they were, we were nothing but mannerly, but when they wanted us to stand around and wait for them to do other things they wanted to show were more important, I did flatly state that we were not there to waste our day waiting for people who were not ready to do the work, if need be, we could do it for them and move on with our day.

Before we left, my daughter made sure to check in with the youth who were in their first year, trying to make sure they knew what to expect and let them know she would be there to help if they needed her.  She offered a hug to one, after giving the family a scare- they had been unprepared for knowing what they needed to do.  But they are really so sweet- we wouldn't want them to be caught off guard.  Then, as my daughter turned and said her goodbyes, one of the people who had very carefully hurt her so deeply held out her arms for a hug.  I was floored, but my daughter held strong and used her manners, not wanting to make a scene.  She let the person have a hug, and we headed off the property.

I told her I was proud of her for holding together so well and maintaining her manners in the face of it.  She said one day at a time, but she didn't want those people to take what was left away from her, or to let them be able to say she hadn't fulfilled even one of her commitments.  And she didn't want thme to be able to do anything to her little brother.

So that is my tip for tonight.  To keep talking them through it, and let them make the decisions of what they want to do for themselves, to help them to be completely informed, and make sure they know they are not alone.  I have appreciated that advice, even as I often want to lock the gates of the property and make the mean people go away.  It is all far from over, we will be dealing with this for some time.  My daughter deserves a real apology, with an admission from those who did this to somehow help restore her reputation.  We are certainly not holding our breath for it, but she does deserve it.  But we have certainly not lost our reality check in all of this.  We will continue to make decisions as a family, where each of the children can state for themselves what they need to do to move forward.  I hope that little bit of advice helps someone else empower their child to persevere for themselves and what is right for them.  I have certainly appreciated the reminder.  I hope you never need the advice, but if you do, I think it has helped us a bit.

Hugs to you all, and a brighter future too.

Lessons Learned... Part Two

Tip Number Two, Be careful with whom you trust your child, even if you have had well placed trust in the individual previously.

This seems so obvious, like something we would all get right.  And yet, when faced with vicious, vindictive folks who have no actual base for the lies they are telling in their gossip, otherwise well meaning people can fall prey to the mob mentality.  Normally nice folks who are generally tireless volunteers and seem to have nothing but every one's best interest at heart, can be sucked into the bizarre vortex of the mob and sweep it along, giving validity to the bully ringleader.

As unkind as the statement may seem, and as much as I have often been accused of being overprotective in an extreme, it is when we let out guard down that the bullies see their chance, and they take it, often with great abandon.  This was certainly true in our case, and looking back, I knew the tide was changing, but didn't want to believe those previously nice folks would be a part of it.

Around here, we have something called "The Wyatt List."  My mother reminds me regularly that the lord doesn't taketh away unless he gives something else in return first.  In our case, our younger child had a rough time with deployments and the endless TDY cycles that are the nature of a military family these days.  For periods of time, sometimes long ones, Wyatt didn't speak.  Then he needed speech therapy and has some processing issues. 

But what Wyatt has in return is this innate ability to see whether adults should be trusted.  Basically anyone other than his age.  The Wyatt List represents a VERY short list of people who he trusts, and often in varying degrees.  Being on the Wyatt list is an honor.(I know, the whole thing sounds odd, but if you qualify for the Wyatt list, you really had to earn it.)  Sometimes he looks at me and says of someone, I really wanted to like her.  She loves animals, but it doesn't feel right.  Funny to watch him.  And he may look at someone at say "I'm shy, I don't want to meet them." 

Imagine my surprise earlier this year when I went to get Wyatt from Bailey at the robotics lab, only to find he was across the hall with her biology teacher walking through the room asked her every question he could think of about her displays.  Shortly thereafter he spent over an hour helping Bailey catch her a tarantula.  This person ended up interceding to help Bailey.  I should have listened more deeply to her, too, though that is another story.

For the first time this year, I saw Wyatt remove people from the Wyatt List.  Previously, the ringleaders of this, and their close friends were never on the list.  He was known to hid under chairs, behind water coolers, whatever to get away from them and not have to speak to them or their children.  When one of the people had been at our home under false pretenses, preparing to drive the largest nail into Bailey, Wyatt had initially tried to help me speak with her, I thought maybe it was going to be okay.  When she left, he said, "That was weird.  What did she really want?"

He had already removed some other folks from the list, ones who he had previously selected and given hugs to.  Looking back, I really wish I had listened to him, and my intuition when their behavior seemed strange.  Maybe I could have somehow protected her, stepped in sooner, or done something to have prevented things from getting quite so bad.  You see, these people were the pillars of the community type.  And yet, even as they said they were not part of what was done, they were spreading the gossip, snubbing our daughter and then asking for hugs from the cuddly sweet girl- very publicly, playing the hurt with her good manners.  And standing back as part of the gossip ring so clearly that would turn their back on her as she walked into a meeting and faced the angry ringleader who said nothing kind. 

And you could read on the ringleader's face and in her strange remarks when she was lying most and gossiping most viciously. And my blind feeling, having gone to those I previously had trusted, allowed them to help the ringleaders to continuously hurt my child more deeply.

So even if you feel that certain people have always been nice in the past, done right by children before, even done special things for your child, don't ignore warning signs that say you should withdraw your trust.  And if you have to withdraw that trust, keep records of what is being done.  But that is the topic of another post, this one is long enough!  So be careful who you trust, and don't blindly continue to trust someone just because you have in the past and other folks continue to do so.  Our parent intuition is there for a reason!

Lessons Learned... Part One

I began this blog several months ago, in the hopes of opening a dialog that would help my children cope with bullies, and share strategies with others where my children and others might have a few more tools to surviving life in a sometimes cruel world.

At the time, the bullies involved in pushing at the lives of my own children were gleaning help from adults and they were increasing in the frequency and intensity of their bullying activities.  Over the course of this school year, things got really bad.  I don't mean crying on the drive home from school bad, I mean vomiting, sleepwalking, not sleeping for weeks and then the adults finishing my child off so that we were just trying to get through the year and my child was promising she could handle it and the school called in the sheriff bad. 

But there wasn't much the sheriff could do, unless I press charges.  And the bullies' cyber activity had been very carefully deleted from the cyber places right before the final set of proverbial knives were thrown.  So pressing charges would take significant work.  But I still may, if it protects someone else.

Fortunately, my child had some great people in her life who closed ranks around her and have helped her through.  I have set through numerous meetings with people in charge of the extracurricular activity these folks were a part of, and they helped a little, but not much beyond getting through the end of the year, and from the place where I look, I don't know if they have done anything to prevent this from happening to another youth.  And I believe they would do it again, if given the chance.  Maybe they are doing something, but they cannot tell me what it is.  A real apology would be nice.  And for something to correct the lies told where these folks worked to ruin my child's reputation.

So now, here I sit, with the family putting the pieces back together and trying to finish the school year strong.  And I reflect on what I should have done before, what we did right to survive, what I ignored along the way to them hurting her so deeply, what I could share to help someone else walking in my shoes.  So for the next several posts, I am going to try to share some of those things.  I will go one at a time, so the posts aren't so long, and if you all have any tips to share, please do.  While I moderate comments to keep things positive and avoid anyone personally attacking another, the more ideas and options, the more tools in the tool belt for parents and you.

Here is my first tip, something we did right:  Don't let any one activity be all that your child is. 

In other words, it is easy to get wrapped up in a favorite sport, like soccer, or activity like robotics or 4-H or the like.  I am not, under any circumstances, saying that they should participate in a multitude of activities.  We as parents must gently enforce a balance between, school, activities, and down time.  But sometimes it is easy to let your child contine to expand further and furth in one activity, say multiple projects in 4H or multiple teams in one sport, and when the bullies show up, and start pushing things around, you are backed into living with those bullies or giving up that activity, becoming isolated from the friends there, and it gives those bullies WAY too much power.

While other folks made fun of us, told us we were holding our children back, my husband and I stood our ground at Football that our son could balance it with 4-H, and at 4-H that our children could play football, (basketball for our daughter, and this year she traded basketball for robotics and Science Olympiad.)  In the end, it was the youth in one of those activities which closed ranks around our daughter and reminded her of what a great kid she was.  When the bullies even went to that saving grace activity to hurt her reputation, and she teetered on the fence of falling apart again, one leader of that saving grace activity looked at her and said that they knew who she was for them, who she really was, and that was what mattered.  Sometimes I wonder if that leader knew just how much that one statement meant.

This is getting harder than I had thought to be as nondescript asa possible about who her bullies were, but just don't worry about who they were.  The important thing now is, what we learn from having gone through this.  Having had my child's reputation publicly maligned by bullies, I have no desire to have folks pointing fingers here, just to learn and share strategies to survive and thrive as a community we can all be proud of.  Anyhow, you get the idea.  That variety of friendships and experiences helps your child learn who they really are, and whom they want to be in this world.  So enough for now, I'll share another next time.  Hold strong, hug tight, say I love you adnd mean it.  Tlak to you soon.

Positive signs of what children are learning and how they see the world...

This is not so much about bullies, or preventing it, but a story about some positive things goin gon that make the world a better place.  I have been reminding my children, with all the competitions the participate in, that life isn't about winning every race, competition and prize.  Life is about doing the best you can and learning along the journey, and being proud of the person you were along the way.

We brought this hen home on Friday. She is presently living in a pen by herself, as she is new to the property and should be quarantined. As many of you know already, I have been mentoring an elementary school in an underpriviliged area with poultry. They were already doing beautifully with their gardens, where the youth select health ingredients for snacks and lunches and the families take turns helping with caring for the plants.

In the fall, a local farm donated ten hatching eggs for the children, and the school used an incubator (the hard way to begin the first time) and we candled eggs and waitd for some to hatch. Only one hatched, so the teacher bought a blue cochin at the feed store to be its friend growing up.

The young chicks are now over three months old, and are ready to move into the freshly built coop. Having seen the little ones throughout their life, the children are anxious to collect eggs.

In order to see the project all the way through, my friend Mai donated the Rhode Island Red you see above. Wyatt has selected a Phoenix hen to go along with her to the school as his donation to the project, one who likes to hatch babies.

So as the last touches are going on the coop this weekend, the Rhode Island will remain at our little farm for a couple of days. Early in the coming week, Bailey and Wyatt will help me take the birds to the class and get everyone settled in together. What an exciting time! In a world where nutrition has taken a back seat to convenience and cost, it is a pleasure to be a part of such a special project where youth learn to grow their own food and prepare it healthfully.

When this little Rhode Island Red came home, Wyatt was sad to sit her by herself, though he knows that is the proper way to do things when you raise a lying and meat flock. So after chores, he sat with her a while. "Everyone needs a friend, Mama. Especially when you go to a new place."

Okay, maybe there is hope for this workd after all...

Sunday Smile to start the Week Right...

Okay, nothing profound, just something special and sweet.  Had to share it.  Some of the folks I just stumbled upon in this life make my day on a regular basis with smiles, thought rovoking quotes and little things.  Never discount those people in this life.  Thank you to all of you who remind me of the goo din this world.  And when the bullies come to make themselves feel better by making you feel worse, remember who your special folks are. 

Have a great week!  Oh, and feel free to post a thanks to one of those special people in your life as a comment on this post.  Pay it forward!

Thought for the day on being a winner...

http://www.npr.org/2012/02/22/147186116/when-theres-more-to-winning-than-winning

I teach yoga, so sometimes you hear me call it Karma. I am also a parent, and at a 4H practice I once listened to a parent and leader discuss her expectations that any of her youth had better help out a fellow competitor who was having issues, with good sportsmanship and a smile on their face. And I was raised in a family where your work ethic and how you treat others, not your win-loss record are the measure of who you are.

This morning I managed to get out the door without my cell phone. So I got to make the long drive home. Turned out to be a good thing. Got a few moments in of catching up with Charlie as he was beginning his day, and helped him study for a board he has this afternoon. He told me a good friend had broken his leg earlier this week. The first thing I thought was ouch. To both of us, his is such a dear sweet guy with a smile and a hug for everyone, who manages to have all the dumb luck. But still a great guy.

Along the road home, I was listening to NPR, catching up on the goings on. There is a weekly commentator there, Frank Deford who has such wonderful perspective to his thoughts. He has logged in commentaries about people wanting to remove the national anthem from sporting events because people behave so poorly and his thoughts about athletes as heroes. Today was a wonderful piece about what makes them famous. And the role of the coach in making youth into good people.

Well, I hope you check it out, and leave your feedback. I hope that for you, like it did for me, it is one little lift in the step and reminder of who you want to be and how you want to be remembered. Have a great day everyone!

Quote to share...

I was listening to a show on NPR about bullying and heard this quote, wrote it down and it sort of stayed there.  On Saturday night, I was watching the news and they noted that within the city limits of Tucson, ten teen suicides in the past year have been attributed to bullying and/ or cyber bullying.  Wow.  I dug out the quote. 

"Gossip is like bursting a pillow on a hilltop.  Once the feathers are out, they cannot be gathered up again."

This quote makes me think.  When gossipping begins, I want to flee and yet I am not good at saying anything to effectively stop it.  Changing the subject hasn't been getting me anywhere, saying to each their own hasn't either.  And to be honest, it isn't enough.  I recently watched a mom stand up and say enough to talking about a family, and I was so impressed with her ability to do so.  I am better at sitting with others and directing my children to not hang out with gossippers than I am at making the "bittys" stop.

I also tried speaking to the parents of one of the youth who has targeted others, including my children, but the parents didn't seem to think it was a problem.  So today I ask for all of your input.  What would you say or do?

So many of the wonderful people around me have amazing insight, and I hope to learn from all of you.  This blog has some great followership, and I look forward to seeing the advice make a difference.  Thank you all for helping to make a difference.  Hugs to all!

Sharing a Great Story

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kristen-wolfe/dear-customer-who-stuck-u_b_1190690.html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000009

So today I have my catch-up day. Just myself and the animals as I try to catch up with a day here at our little world.  I was taking a break from responding to the emails I hadn't gotten to, when I saw someone had posted this as a share on facebook.

This story shows one way that we stand together to end bullying and make a difference for the youth of tomorrow.  Hope you like it, hope it helps you remember to be yourself and encourage others to be as well.  Have a wonderful, blessed Monday.

As always, I encourage the notes, ideas and comments that help us all stand up to bullies and help the little guy.  As always, a little reminder of Ghandi, "You ust be the change you wish to see in the world."