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By Kimberly Hayes: As a busy professional, it is common to feel stressed, overwhelmed, and burnt out. Often, the long hours and the pressure to succeed may lead to neglecting your personal life, which eventually leads to unhappiness and dissatisfaction. However, achieving career success and maintaining a fulfilling personal life is possible with the right strategies. In this article, shared below by The Gen Z Collective, we’ll discuss ways to avoid burnout and maintain a healthy work-life balance. Practice Positive Thinking Our thoughts greatly impact our emotions and actions. Positive thinking is a powerful tool that helps to change our attitudes toward challenges and obstacles. As a busy professional, it is important to stay motivated despite the long hours and demanding workloads. By adopting a positive attitude, you can approach work with enthusiasm and optimism. Embrace positive affirmations, visualize your goals, and focus on your strengths rather than your weaknesses. This will boost your confidence levels and increase your resilience. Effective Communication Effective communication is the key to any successful relationship. As a busy professional, you need to build strong relationships with your colleagues, clients, and stakeholders. Communication helps you to understand their needs, expectations, and concerns. It also helps solve conflicts and misunderstandings. Active listening, clarity, and empathy are fundamental skills that you need to master. Ensure that you are approachable, responsive, and respectful in your communication. Prioritize Quality Time In the pursuit of career success, it is easy to neglect your personal life. However, spending time with your loved ones is crucial for your well-being and happiness. Make an effort to create quality time for your family and friends. This could include having dinner together, going for a weekend getaway, or simply spending time watching a movie or playing games. Prioritizing quality time with your loved ones keeps you connected and strengthens your relationships. Take Up a Hobby Finding a hobby is a vital strategy for professionals striving to balance career success with personal fulfillment. Engaging in activities outside of work offers an escape from the demands of a hectic professional life. For example, learning how to nurture houseplants, a seemingly simple pursuit, not only provides a much-needed avenue for relaxation and mental decompression but also enhances the aesthetics of your living environment. Hobbies like these can serve as a reminder of the growth and nurturing potential in all aspects of life, reinforcing a sense of accomplishment and personal well-being. Update Your Cover Letter and Find a Better Job If you are not happy in your current job, it is time to consider finding a more rewarding job. A job that aligns with your passions, skills, and values will give you a sense of fulfillment and satisfaction. Start by identifying your career goals, and then tailor your job search to these goals. Boost your chances of landing an interview with a solid cover letter and resume. When you create a PDF online of your resume, you safeguard the format, regardless of the device or operating system used to read it. Moreover, this format is compatible with a variety of online tools that provide options to convert, compress, edit, and rearrange the content, making your resume more versatile and easier to handle. Consider Going Back to School If your current job starts to feel like a dead end, consider going back to school. Online programs are ideal for working professionals who are looking to enhance their skills and knowledge. Pursuing an advanced degree can open up new career opportunities. It can also make you more marketable and add value to your resume. Going back to school is an investment in your future and can help you achieve your career goals. Work with a Life Coach Stuck in a rut? Working with a life coach can help you gain clarity and focus. A life coach helps you identify your goals, strengths, and challenges. They also help you create actionable strategies that enable you to achieve your goals. A life coach provides accountability, support, and guidance throughout your career journey. They help you to overcome your limiting beliefs, develop new habits, and create a sense of purpose and fulfillment. In conclusion, achieving career success does not have to come at the expense of your personal life. Finding a rewarding job, creating a positive work environment, going back to school, and other strategies are effective ways to achieve your career goals while maintaining a fulfilling personal life. It is possible to have it all—just remember to stay focused, motivated, and committed to your well-being. Join The Gen Z Collective in championing the causes that matter to you. Discover organizations and connect with like-minded individuals dedicated to making a difference. Visit our website and start making your impact today! Kimberly Hayes is Chief Blogger for Public Health Alert as she studies to become a crisis intervention counselor. She enjoys writing about health and wellness and created Public Health Alert to help keep the public informed about the latest developments in popular health issues and concerns.

By Angel Lopez: The next chapter of your life is in full swing, whether you recognize it or not. And it’s important at this point to ask yourself, “Am I being guided by fear or intuition?” These two voices sound so alike sometimes that it’s hard to differentiate. We all want to believe that we are so deeply in tune with our inner selves that we can tap into our deepest truth and know what is best. But fear can be strong, and it masquerades so beautifully as a voice of truth that you believe it instantly. And it makes sense, because that fear is usually rooted in something that’s accompanied you for much of your life; a trauma that’s calcified and built a structure of protection around your heart; a mean lie that you innocently believed and gave life to as a full-fledged insecurity. These traumas and lies can start to rule your life and show up as the loudest voice in your decision-making process. Meanwhile, intuition is in the back row, shouting for someone, anyone, to listen. Your goal for Pisces Season is to boot that fear-based voice to the back of the room. It can chime in when you’re in a physically dangerous situation and tell you to turn around. But when it comes to facing your goals and dreams dead in the eyes, you need intuition at the helm, calling the shots and guiding you in the direction of your heart and soul. Read for your Sun sign, but also check your Rising, if you know it. ARIES You’re in the process of growing to an even greater and clearer sense of self-worth, and that can make the demons of your personal uncertainty even louder. They’re squirming because you have the power right now to release old doubts and insecurities to the point of banishment. The trick in doing so lies in presence. You must work hard to grow so present in your life right now that it’s difficult for the past to be seen—or more so, felt. Because you do need your past to measure how far you’ve come and to remember what you’ve overcome, but you also need to feel how good it is to let something go and move beyond adversity. Don’t get caught up in any feelings of your past. Instead, attach yourself to a feeling of triumph that comes when you accomplish something. Your attention should be focused toward any and all of the successes you've made . TAURUS This is a good time to look to your community as a sense of how you’re progressing on your path. Are you feeling supported and strengthened, surrounded by folks who nurture your sense of belonging? Or are you in a place of isolation, where you can stay steeped in an old version of you, free from growth? If it’s the latter, you may find you’re struggling to find your footing in any of the new projects or directions you’re trying to manifest. Recognize that you don’t need to go it alone. In fact, going it alone is going to amplify all of your old ways and inhibit the new growth that wants to come through. You need help in the form of people who can spark your creativity and speak your spiritual language. Soul friends are all around you—embrace them. GEMINI Something soulful and surprising has come along and helped ignite you with a greater sense of purpose. Your natural spirit of curiosity is up and about, wondering how to lasso you a more distinct next chapter. The truth is, you need to get a little lost in the mystery of what’s to come. Approach this current life like the detective in a playful, pre-teen book. You have an idea where you’re headed, and some things are in process, but don’t feel the need to have all the answers and know all the details just yet. Explore any chaos around you. Take time to ponder the current insights and swim in the wonder of what could be. And take some tangible steps in the land of your dreams without needing to feel like you’ve reached the goal. Know that the smallest of strides gets you closer to the horizon. CANCER There may be some new dreams for your life that you didn’t even consider as a want or possibility before. You can be somewhat stubborn, so it’s been easy to create a sense of your life and how it’s meant to work without leaving much room for growth or change. And you’ve probably put structures in place that have been working, so there hasn’t been a need to explore much beyond the way you’ve been living. However, life has recently thrown you some new experiences that have shifted the landscape of your philosophy, discovering truths you didn’t believe had pertained to you. It’s time to get comfortable shifting the way you see yourself. Perhaps there’s actually a bigger life out there for you than you even cared to dream. Challenge yourself to change beliefs and welcome in some new, exciting adventures. LEO You’re being called to deepen your sense of life by integrating any of the hard or growth-inducing lessons you’ve recently experienced. You may have to go within and make sure that you fully allowed yourself to feel all you needed to during a difficult situation. You may have gone through it, but there’s still some lessons to dig in to so that you can take the gifts of the adversity and truly utilize them. You’re aching to engage more passionately with your purpose or career in a way that infuses it with more joy. Know that all of your greatest challenges offer valuable insights into how you tackle your aspirations. There may even be a part of yourself you didn’t know existed that rose to the top when you needed to face something hard. That piece of you can now be your ambition’s secret weapon. VIRGO You would benefit from some strong relationships in your life, so it’s important you spend more time alongside people whose life philosophy aligns with yours. This means pulling back on that desire to nurse those wounded birds who nest in your life. And it also means to pay more attention to your own wounded sensibilities and how much credit you give them. You may be in a torrid relationship with one or more of your own inner injuries. You may have gotten so used to nurturing your own traumas that they’ve just taken root and colored your view of the world. That’s not to say there aren’t tangible and painful circumstances existing in your sphere, but how you look upon and internalize them controls your ability to motivate yourself on a daily basis. And you need motivation right now to continue learning how to make a better, more-powerful you. LIBRA The discipline you seek to commit to a transformation for your life is ready for duty, but you’re gonna have to let go of some aspects of yourself that have lingered for too long. This doesn’t have to be some difficult process. In fact, you’d benefit from employing a “fake it ‘til you make it” mentality. Just start to do the things you want to have in your life, even if it feels like you’re playing pretend. The more you can force yourself to engage with your desires and goals, even in a sloppy way, the better you’ll find yourself building the actual routine of it. And that will help create some belief that what you want can be tangible. This is important because it’s really some outdated beliefs that need to be released. So just smother them with any activities and habits that will help produce your new reality. SCORPIO You’re engaging in some new partnerships that will challenge you because they will find their way into your heart and life more quickly than you usually like to move. Try not to fight it. You are naturally weary of people and don’t trust easily, but sometimes if someone just makes sense, you can’t avoid just letting them in. This also may not be someone brand new. There may be people in your life who’ve been around for a minute, but current experiences are creating a new narrative for your relationship where you’re able to rewrite your feelings for them. Surprise yourself by evolving and giving them a second chance. And know that this can work in two ways. Some are rushing in while others are being exposed, therefore ushering themselves out of the deepest part of your heart. Let them go too so you can make room for the new. SAGITTARIUS You can’t rewrite your history. You can only learn from and embrace it. But be aware of where you’ve maybe told yourself you’ve moved on when you really have not. Grudges and feelings of resentment can build up and turn into nasty anxiety and pain. Now’s a great time to find creative ways to forgive any pieces or people of the past who still make you cringe. That disgust you feel comes from a place in your heart that’s housing hurt, and you don’t need it anymore. This isn’t to say you have to love those who’ve hurt you, but you have to either make amends or leave them behind. Just make sure it’s your intuition and heart deciding the outcome. Because if ego or anger are calling the shots, then you’re not releasing, you’re retaliating. And that just keeps the cycle in motion. CAPRICORN It’s time to drum up your most insightful, creative self. To allow your inner child to step forth and play. To let go of any need to control so you can get more comfortable with the mystical. Yes, we know you’re the one who relies more greatly on a tangible reality rather than on the invisible hand. But if you can welcome more of the magical into your life right now, you’ll find there are some really exciting opportunities and excursions to be had that can wildly challenge your outlook on life. And to be honest, you could use a little shake-up of your mentality. There’s only so long that you can hold on to any beliefs before they start to grow stale and leave you standing behind the curve of your growth. It’s time to get more present with your purpose, but that comes with an adjustment on how you receive change. AQUARIUS You’re in the midst of a personal revolution, when you’re feeling an inspiring wave of shift and enthusiasm coming toward your shore. But in order to fully feel it wash over you, you’re going to have to galvanize a greater sense of discipline, value and commitment for the projects and ambitions that you’re striving to bring into fruition. Try your best to be in service to the future you who is excitedly waiting to share in the rewards of your endeavors. Picture them rooting you on from the future’s finish line, in all their triumphant glory. It’s kind of a sci-fi scenario, which should speak to your soul’s quirky nature. It could also help you to feel like you’re on more of a narrative, heroic journey, which you are. But if you can really let yourself approach life like that, then you’ll be better able to feel into the motivational energy that’s trying to guide you. PISCES It’s time for you to pause and acknowledge all of the hard work that you’ve been putting in to crafting the next chapter of your life. Even if it doesn’t feel like you’ve fully made the headway you were aspiring to, or if you can’t entirely see what’s ahead of you, please recognize how you have found ways to push some new, beautiful flowers of growth through the concrete challenges of your life. You’re also birthing a new version of you that is so much more aligned with the most authentic expression of your soul that you can trust a bit more in all you do. That's because your choices are coming from the deepest part of you, for your highest good. To solidify this direction, feed yourself some really loving thoughts, reminding yourself that you are capable. You are deserving. You are a wish of the Universe ready to come true. Angel Lopez is a film producer, writer, astrologer, and co-host of the podcast, THE SPIRITUAL GAYZ alongside his husband, our Spiritual Guru Brandon Alter. Angel has been studying and working with both tarot and astrology for twenty years. He hosted the astrology web-series, ASTRO TALK WITH ANGEL, and writes the blog ASTROLOGY REALNESS. He has also had pieces published on Upworthy.com and The Huffington Post. On the film side, Angel produced the Sundance Film Festival award winning film DEAR WHITE PEOPLE, as well as the features THE DINNER and STATE LIKE SLEEP. He also wrote and directed his own short film, I CAN’T WITH YOU, which had its premiere at the 2016 HollyShorts Film Festival, and he recently finished producing filmmaker Justin Simien’s second feature, BAD HAIR. Visit www.thespiritualgayz.com to learn more. To sign up for The Spiritual Gayz newsletter click here.

By Yvonne Osborne: I dreamt I was dragging the garden hose across my mother’s yard in the heat of summer to water her geraniums and her climbing rose. It was covered with bursting buds but also, oddly, clumps of ice and snow were trapped amongst the thorns. There was a dreamscape darkness over the yard, as before a gathering storm, and the grass was overgrown. Nobody was home, but I wanted Mother to know I had watered her flowers. I dropped the hose under the rose bush and left it dripping, like an open mouth, to give it a good soaking, the way she said you should. The bush was full and shoulder height, and a clump of melting snow rested aberrantly between a thorn and a bud about to open. I awoke sucking the prick from a finger wet in my mouth. I dug up a clump of that old bush and transplanted it to another place before the old place was demolished. Before the talons of a crane clawed through the roof and swallowed it, chomp chomp, as I watched from my kitchen window. It took ten eighteen-wheelers to haul those nooks and crannies, those stairs and cupboards, the porch facing north, and the office facing south to a landfill I hope isn’t too close to the coastline and rising waters. I water the fledgling rose bush and feed it, but it is gangly and unhappy in its new location. A rash of buds in spring but then nothing as summer lengthens into dog days of sweltering heat. It preferred the old foundation and her ministrations, a rising sun over the setting one it now faces. One cane grows tall above the rest, reaching east over the railing. There is a darkness over the yard. Yvonne Osborne is a fifth-generation Michigander who grew up on the family farm under the tutelage of a grandmother who loved Shakespeare before Shakespeare was cool. She is a Pushcart-nominated poet, and her poetry and writing can be found in The Slippery Elm literary journal, Third Coast Review, Full of Crow, Midwest Review, Great Lakes Review, and in several anthologies. Let Evening Come is her debut novel. yvonneosborne.com goodreads.com/Yvonne_Osborne

By Flapper Press Poetry Café: The Flapper Press Poetry Café continues a series of articles about favorite lines of poetry and the poets who wrote them. We’re reaching out to poets, writers, and lovers of poetry to submit their favorite lines of poetry and tell us why you love them. Check out our submission guidelines and send us your favorites! We'll feature your submission sometime this year on our site! This week, our submission comes from poet Grete Mouret. "Du Som Har Tændt Millioner Af Stjerner" From Grete: In Denmark, we have a very long tradition of poetry set to music. Therefore, I tried to find a translation of either a Danish hymn or a song of which we have a multitude. You can hear my selection on YouTube for "Du som har taendt millioner af stjerner” by Johannes Johansen (text) and Erik Sommer (composer). This poetic hymn is very popular. The popularity, for  the poem and the music, is evident by the fact that the Prince Consort Henrik of Denmark had pre-chosen this hymn for his funeral that was held in 2018. As to the poem, it is a much-played yet "plain" poem, liked by children as well as adults, better of course in Danish than translated. It contains so many "pictures," easily understood. English translation of the lyrics: You who have lit millions of stars, kindle in our darkness a sparkling faith. You are our light, and you guard and cherish us, so that we sleep in security and peace. Thank you for the bright day that has passed, the gift to us your hands have reached. Forgive us what we didn't get, forgive all evil we have done or said! Thank you for every joy that filled our heart, every time you made our life a party. Help us bear every burden, every pain, you alone know what serves us best. Thank you for the people who became our support, when we found the way difficult to walk. Help us tomorrow to help associate, meet us ourselves in the weak and small! You who have lit millions of stars, you will defy the darkness of the world. You are our Father, the one who guards and cherishes, light in the darkness that comes from us. Grete Mouret was born in Aalborg, Denmark, and resides in Assens, Denmark. Educated at the School of Languages and Economics of Copenhagen, she worked as a translator in English, German, and French at the University of Copenhagen, Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, for 40 years, half of which she served as Editorial Manager of an International medical journal. The Flapper Press Poetry Café Presenting a wide range of poetry with a mission to promote a love and understanding of poetry for all. We welcome submissions for compelling poetry and look forward to publishing and supporting your creative endeavors. Submissions may also be considered for the Pushcart Prize. Please review our Guidelines before submitting! Submission Guidelines

By Flapper Press Café: The Flapper Press Poetry Café continues a series of articles about favorite lines of poetry and the poets who wrote them. We’re reaching out to poets, writers, and lovers of poetry to submit their favorite lines of poetry and tell us why you love them. Check out our submission guidelines and send us your favorites! We'll feature your submission sometime this year on our site! This week, our submission comes from poet Jolene Paul. "What you seek is seeking you." (Joyously) —Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī (1207–1273) From Jolene Paul: In Rumi’s lines, I feel the emotion and what this brings to me and how it directs me. So many people get stuck in the negative. However, when I seek joy, I think I become a person who finds a brain path to turn their life to happiness. When I read Rumi, his words feel authentic while not being preachy. He just states a mystical truth with clarity, and this is why I think his words hold so much meaning for me, especially when I add "JOYOUSLY." About Rumi: A 13th-century Persian Sufi mystic poet Jala al-Din Rumi has become a rock-star poet for our current age. His words of wisdom seem to permeate the confusion of our time to bring clarity and optimism to the mystery of living. His work has been translated by A. J. Arberry, Franklin D. Lewis, Jawid Mojaddedi, Reynold A. Nicholson, and Coleman Barks. To read more about Rumi and his work, visit: Poets.org - Jalal al-Din Rumi "Why is Rumi the best-selling poet in the US?" - BBC.com Poems by Rumi - Rumi.org Jolene Paul resides in Arkansas with her lovely husband of 26 years. She loves her amazing daughter, Jordan. In addition, her dogs, Finley and Riley, bring her comfort. She enjoys walking, writing, painting, reading, and making jewelry. She carries optimism with her wherever she goes and faces any obstacle in her path. Each day she hones her ability to add love instead of subtracting love. The Flapper Press Poetry Café Presenting a wide range of poetry with a mission to promote a love and understanding of poetry for all. We welcome submissions for compelling poetry and look forward to publishing and supporting your creative endeavors. Submissions may also be considered for the Pushcart Prize. Please review our Guidelines before submitting! Submission Guidelines

By Flapper Press Poetry Café: Love is in the airwaves! To celebrate Valentine's Day, the Flapper Press Poetry Café announces our winning selections for our annual Juliet Poetry Contest! This year, our prompt asked poets to create work inspired by their favorite songs. There were no restrictions on poetry form. Each of our five winners receives a $25 prize for their work. As always, we are incredibly grateful for the many submissions that we received. It's always a daunting task to choose just five. Thank you to all our submitters, and congratulations to our winners! Stay tuned for our next contest! HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY! Our winners, in alphabetical order: Michael Brownstein Song Inspiration: "Cherish" by The Association Poem: "Cherish Is" Cherish Is "Cherish is the word I use to describe" the gentle wind through shades of green, the ripple of smile in the current of the creek, the scent of golden currant in spring— this is how I know I love you, not because when I stare into your lips, not for a kiss, but for the wild dolphins at play, how your eyes light up the empire of songbirds, the soft blush within a skin of Carmel, a sugar made sweeter with a tilt of your head and lemons less tart because you are you, yes, you are my movement dancing with joy. "Cherish is the word I use to describe" the plain growing into a blossom of mountains, dolomite crystals lifting their colors sunlit, the melody of the whispering pine— and, yes, I do love you with soul's grace, the strength of black tourmaline, a grit that conquers the path through hackberry, and the song within the rainbow's treasure, a lullaby that rhymes with your essence, an empathy as strong as seraphinite as if you alone can change the nature of conflict, as if you alone are the sonnet within my heart. Sherri Buerky Song Inspiration: "Sunshine on my Shoulders" by John Denver Poem: "Sunshine" Sunshine Sunshine, Golden days walking among the trees bright hues of various greens greet my eyes as I meander down the path towards the gurgling stream. Breezes gently blow scattering scents of yesteryear's memories clearing out the fog of winter's icy webs. Coming into a break in the trees I turn my face towards the clear cheery blue sky, I smile, Sunshine on my shoulders makes me happy. Sparkles beckon me onwards towards the laughing waters Reminiscing as I travel of being at play on the water, skipping pebbles, hopping on stones from one side to the other, collecting shells, skittish frogs, and frantic turtles, in my childhood days. I reach the waters edge and gaze at the suns reflection scattered and dappled across the liquid surface. I smile, Sunshine on the water looks so lovely. Winters cold bone has eased away, The drab gray skies have gone as warmth saturates my hair and touches my skin like a satisfying hug. I smile, Recognizing a familiar friend, Sunshine on my shoulders makes me happy. Sunshine almost always makes me smile. Pamela Hobart Carter Song Inspiration: "Can't Help Falling in Love" by Elvis Presley Poem: "Only Fools" Only Fools Did we rush? Is rush an attempt to describe the overfast sensation in the chest —bird wings, butterflies— or the haste to consummate, or the urgency of selves declaring their attraction— the zip of magnets snapping together with a satisfying click? In-rushing could be the ecstasy of mutuality. More fools we keeping silence when the aim throughout humanity ought to be a centering on love. Oh, let’s express, now, before the cold ground covers our lonely skeletons— choose to be thought fools rather than sit all alone in our separate rooms. Alshaad Kara Song Inspiration: "I Will Always Love You" by Whitney Houston Poem: "Darling" Darling If we ever got married, This is for you. That love that burns every fright You had in me, Darling Is the adieu to a long awaited solitude. The fulfilment in saying vows Bring back the enthral Which started our new journeys together. Love despite being despised When things go dry Is the wine that is celebrated In the joyous of times. Thank you for staying with me, Darling And I Will always love you Even when things turn into heartbreak... Radhika Soni Song Inspiration: "Bless the Broken Road" by Rascal Flatts Poem: "It Isn't Easy Loving a Poet" It Isn't Easy Loving a Poet It isn't easy loving a poet For he will not love me with a look Instead, write me in the pages of his book. He will not hold me in his arms But bind me in rhyme that forever charms; He will not bring flowers at my door, Instead, inscribe our love in metaphor. Though it isn't easy loving a poet, There is little that I regret, For if our love will be writ in his pages, We'd be remembered for ages. If he will bind me in rhyme, Our love in the heavens would forever chime; And though he may not bring me flowers, I would dwell forever in metaphor's bowers. And what would love be if it's a quest for ease, For it does not slacken or seek to appease. And I know God blessed the broken road I traversed with doubts and fears, For a poet's love from all aspects Is the one that truly adheres. The Flapper Press Poetry Café Presenting a wide range of poetry with a mission to promote a love and understanding of poetry for all. We welcome submissions for compelling poetry and look forward to publishing and supporting your creative endeavors. Submissions may also be considered for the Pushcart Prize. Please review our Guidelines before submitting through our regular Submission process! Submission Guidelines

By Annie Newcomer: The Flapper Press Poetry Café is honored to feature the work from poets from all over the globe. This week, we present the work of poet Susanna Lang! Susanna Lang divides her time between Chicago and Uzès, France. Her most recent chapbook, Like This, was released in 2023 (Unsolicited Books), along with her translations of poems by the Algerian-French writer Souad Labbize in My Soul Has No Corners (Diálogos Books). Her e-chapbook, Among Other Stones: Conversations with Yves Bonnefoy, (Mudlark: An Electronic Journal of Poetry & Poetics) was published in 2021. Her third full-length collection of poems, Travel Notes from the River Styx, was published in 2017 by Terrapin Books. Her poems, translations, and reviews have appeared or are forthcoming in such publications as The Common, december magazine, Asymptote, Tupelo Quarterly, American Life in Poetry, Rhino Reviews, Mayday, and The Slowdown. Her translations of poetry by Yves Bonnefoy include Words in Stone and The Origin of Language, and she is now working with Souad Labbize and Hélène Dorion on new translations. To find more about the work of Susanna Lang, visit her website here. We reached out to Susanna Lang to talk about her work, influences, and passions. Please meet Susanna Lang! Annie Newcomer: Welcome to Flapper Press, Susanna. When asked to share one word or phrase that best described your work for us, you wrote "The one-word (or phrase) description of my poetry is the French term (though I’m taking liberties with it) engagée ('engaged with the world')." Please expound on this response so that our readers can have a deeper understanding of what it means for a poet to be engaged and why this is so crucial to good writing. My bonus question is how does one explain the subtleties of the French word engagée to an American audience? Susanna Lang: I had a terrible time coming up with one word or phrase to describe my writing, so I am happy to have a follow-up question! In French, as used to describe anything literary, “engagé(e)” refers to political engagement. I was raised in an activist family, and I continue to give time to electoral work, to supporting refugees, to preservation of the natural world; and I write some poems that are “engaged” in that limited sense, though I find it very difficult to do well, without becoming didactic or expository or propagandistic, and without speaking only to the current moment. But what I meant here, and why I said I was taking liberties with the word, is that I want to write and to read poems turned outward to the world beyond our small selves. To be honest, I don’t often find myself interesting enough to write poems about. But the world itself, both the physical world and the communities we belong to—that’s worth some poems! AN: I am intrigued that you split your time between Chicago, Illinois, and Uzès, France. Life in these two cities seem as though they would be polar opposites, as Chicago is one of the largest cities in the U.S. and Uzès is a small medieval town with charming tiled roofs lacking the annoying  tourist traps highjacked by commercialism. How did you find Uzès? Please share how each geographical area impacts you as a poet. How do you navigate these two different worlds? And in what ways might they be the same? SL: I’ve studied French since I was in seventh grade, and I translate French poetry into English, though I couldn’t keep it up while I was teaching full-time. Now that I’m retired from the classroom, translation is a big part of my writing life. I had dreamed of having a place of my own in France without ever believing in the dream, but my husband did, and he found Uzès online. It is indeed a charming medieval/Renaissance town (and, I’m afraid, a tourist magnet), but it’s also a regional center with a phenomenal open market twice a week, and my husband is a committed cook. It has a real cultural life, though we’re just getting to know that aspect of the place, and it’s within easy reach of cities such as Nîmes (jazz festival, Roman antiquities) and Avignon (the palace of the popes in exile, the bridge in the children’s song, an opera house with many different kinds of performances). A little harder to reach is Toulouse, where the poet I’ve mostly translated is living—Souad Labbize. We enjoy the lifestyle in France, so much time spent on a terrasse, eating a meal or drinking wine or coffee as the world walks by, including our new neighbors. We appreciate the beauty even of simple structures, the attention to harmony and line. I’ve always liked displacement as a pathway into poems. I’ve benefitted from residencies in the Blue Ridge Mountains (Hambidge Center) and the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore and writing conferences in the New Hampshire mountains (The Frost Place) and Port Townsend, Washington. New landscapes bring new ways of seeing, and the landscapes and cityscapes of Southern France are gorgeous. I am still feeling my way into a life that moves between Chicago and Uzès, as “Going and Staying Home” suggests, but the movement itself is helpful, if something of a stress test. AN: In reading over your list of literary accomplishments, your work (which is prolific) covers both full-length manuscripts of printed poetry books, chapbooks, and e-books. Please differentiate for our readers between a chapbook and poetry book and how you decide to use one over the other. How has your experience been with e-books, and why choose this form to publish your work? SL: The difference between a chapbook and what we usually mean by a poetry book is mostly length. Chapbooks (pamphlets in the UK) are shorter, and micro-chapbooks are super short. (In France, by the way, there is no distinction.) Chapbooks are almost always unified around a theme or a project, but that is increasingly true of full-length books as well. It used to be that poets published a book when they had written enough poems. Now there are so many of us writing poetry, and so few opportunities to publish, that publishers look for something more. For a while, it was whether the collection had an “arc” that took the reader from poem to poem, but recent collections seem more like project books. I didn’t exactly choose to write an e-book. I had written a series of 15 poems that each responded to poem by Yves Bonnefoy from a collection I had translated decades ago, as a very young woman. He was a very important mentor for me, at that time and again later when I worked with him a little more. I tried to write an elegy when Yves died but wasn’t very successful. It took some years, and then I found myself engaged in this written conversation with him. Fifteen poems is an awkward number to publish, but I felt they needed to be together, and Mudlark had a call for manuscripts that seemed to fit what I had written. As a publishing experience, I found it less satisfying than having a physical book to hold in my hands and take to readings, but I was grateful to have any opportunity to share this tribute to a great man and a great poet. AN: Susanna, what is your opinion on poetry workshops? Please share your experiences with poetry workshops and how the camaraderie with other poetic minds impacts your own work. How might a French poetry workshop differ from one in the U.S.? Or do they? SL: I attended Williams College, which did not have a writing program. The college hired poets such as Larry Raab and Jonathan Aaron, but they taught literature courses in the English department. However, they were available for one-on-one critique sessions, and they supported an extracurricular group that met together. The college invited other poets for master classes and readings. I participated in all of these activities, as well as translating Yves Bonnefoy’s poems as an independent study through the French department, and the college gave me a writing fellowship when I graduated. No one spoke to me about an MFA, however. There were fewer programs then, but I might have gotten into one of those few—who knows? Meanwhile, I was young and foolish and thought I could live on that fellowship (impossible) and continue to write on my own (equally impossible). I gave up my writing and translation to work full-time, and then more than full-time when I started to teach, which requires all of you if you are going to do it well. Eventually I found my way back into poetry when the AIDS epidemic brought me so much grief and anger that I had to do something with that emotion, and this time I had developed the wisdom to form a writing group to support my work and my fellow writers. That group—though the membership has changed over the years—is still together, forty-something years later, though recently we’ve been meeting less often. I’ve been in other groups as well, some through email, some in person, and I’ve attended conferences where I could participate in workshops and hear readings and craft lectures. I’m now active in a Chicago-area translators’ collective and in the American Literary Translators Association. I believe strongly that while we write (and translate) alone, we need community to get better at the work and to find the momentum to keep going. I just wish I’d learned that a little sooner! I have no idea whether there are such things as writing workshops in France, much less what they’re like. I work as closely as I can with the poets I translate, which can look a lot like a workshop—a mix of critique and support. AN: When did you know that the poetic life was your dream life and worth pursuing? SL: According to my mother, I wrote my first poem when I was a very small child—she kept it in my baby book. Children do write poems spontaneously, and metaphor is one of the first ways that children experiment with language: my son would sit in his highchair, hold up a cracker he’d nibbled, and say, “boat.” Then we drum it out of them in school, more’s the pity. When my father sank into dementia, he returned to metaphor, and I found I could converse with him if I understood him in that way. I remember writing a poem (something about the rain) in third grade, when the adults in my life—my teacher as well as my parents—made a huge fuss about how wonderful it was. I’m sure it was just the kind of thing children make up when they are allowed to use their imagination, but it was the beginning of my thinking of myself as a writer. Of course, I also wrote how-to books and who knows what else—that’s what children do. In high school, my peer group slept with "Ariel" by Sylvia Plath under our pillows, and I was also reading The Four Quartets by T. S. Eliot, Ann Sexton’s poems, Gary Snyder, E. E. Cummings, John Donne, Emily Dickinson. I already talked about what happened in college and thereafter. AN: How do you select subjects for your poetry? What advice might you give an emerging poet in this regard? SL: Ah, that’s a hard one! I wish I knew the answer. I understand that inspiration is a fiction, and that poems do not just come to me—but that’s what it feels like. If I set out to write a poem about whatever subject I think I should be writing about, the result is dispiriting. Like many other poets, I walk, and I read. I make it a deliberate practice to hold myself open to the world: nothing plugged into my ears when I walk. As I said earlier, landscapes (and cityscapes) are important. Other people’s words can stir something. Stories from the newspapers to which I am addicted. When my father, and then my mother, fell into decline and died, I needed to write elegies. This summer I’ve been volunteering to support refugees in Chicago, both the many bussed to blue northern cities by southern governors and a family evacuated last year from Afghanistan; that work has found its way into a poem (not yet finished). As I have for several summers, I’ve helped with the effort to rebuild the Great Lakes population of critically endangered piping plovers, and I’ve started helping to restore the tiny dunes area at one of our beaches—though there is very little that I hate doing as much as pulling weeds, or (to use our steward’s term) invasive species. That work is also finding its way into my poems. I’ve written nature poems since I was a teenager, but now they are laments over the destruction of our natural environment. Constraints can be helpful, if they are not too restrictive. During the pandemic, I found myself writing an abecedarian series that became my most recent chapbook, Like This. Each title is a simile, in alphabetical order: "Like Apples," "Like Bread," "Like Coffee" . . . and then I branched off from food into everything else. The collection is not about the pandemic, but the pandemic was the air that the poems breathed, and some of the poems do refer to it explicitly. The alphabet, and the requirement I set myself to vary the forms, kept me going: If I had written J, I had to find a K word, though it turns out that English doesn’t have that many. If I’d written a sonnet, it was time for versets or a prose poem or. . . . The Bonnefoy poems kept me going in much the same way. On residency in the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, I wrote a series of landscapes and cityscapes, in sonnets and couplets. Recently, I’ve written odes and conversations between two or three voices, mostly not human. They had to be in physical proximity, to share some aspect of themselves, but also be in tension with each other. I have an ornery streak, so it has to be my own prompt, in the same way that I couldn’t teach from others’ curriculum. I had to develop my own, no matter how time-consuming, or I couldn’t be convincing in the classroom. AN: I love asking poets to devise a question that they wish I had asked and hadn't, and then answer.  This is that moment to ask yourself any question you desire with your response. SL: Your questions have covered a lot of what I’ve been thinking about over the past few years when I’ve been able to commit more of my life to poetry. I supposed that an essential question, especially for the emerging poets you evoke in your last question, is why do this work at all? It certainly doesn’t pay the bills or bring widespread fame for most of us who write poetry. I think we write because we have to, or we don’t keep writing. Some write because it’s fun for them (and nothing feels as good to me as being deep inside a poem, whether in first draft or in revision) or because they’ve found community with other writers. But there are lots of ways to have fun or find community. Why this one, when there is so little reward beyond that rush when you’re in the heat of the writing? Poetry matters much more in other societies than in ours; even in France, where poets and publishers of poetry complain all the time about how the audience is shrinking and it’s harder to publish books and so forth, it looks like heaven to me. You walk into a bookstore and they have a strong contemporary poetry section and booksellers who know the books. You turn a corner in Paris, and there is the Marché de la Poésie, an open-air, open-to-the-public festival with white tents over an unfathomable number of books and poets kissing each other on both cheeks. Turn another corner and there’s a monument to this poet or that, not even all French poets. The woman who cuts my hair reads poetry, and so does her daughter. In Chicago, the woman who cuts my hair loves to read—but not poetry. For me, for the friends with whom I’ve had this conversation, we write because we can’t stop. Tell yourself to stop breathing and see how long that lasts. AN: Thank you so much for joining us today to discuss poetry in our Flapper Press Poetry Café, Susanna. As we end our conversation, we invite our readers to read three poems you have selected for with their backstories. We also wish you success in all your future writing endeavors. SL: Thank you! It’s a pleasure to think about these questions, and to think about them with others. Going and Staying Home Uzès The city has been making improvements in the Parc du Duché: a new playground for children, exercise machines for les sportifs, tables with inlaid boards. Someone has set out white pebbles and chestnuts for a game of chess or checkers. Is this what it means to live in a particular place, to belong here: watching day by day as this small world is renewed, till the barriers come down and I start a game with my husband? (He always wins.) To know the answer when visitors ask where to find the Roman aqueduct? To prefer Le Pêcher Mignon for pastries, La Nougatine for bread? Soon I will leave, return to another city where I know the walking paths, which gardens have yellow aconite in February or bee balm and echinacea in high summer, asters and autumn-blooming clematis. Where I buy bread at Phlour, shortbreads at Bittersweet. Some homes I can no longer reach except in fragments of memory: the little white house where my mother planted tulips, the apartment at 101st and West End, the new-built house, now more than fifty years old, on a dirt road leading to a farm whose cows liked to wander. The farm must be gone, a sub-division in its pasture. A slippery word, home, though I always thought it marked the foundation, the magnet to pull me back. I live now between two poles, always going and coming, packing and unpacking; always hovering between stop and start over. About the poem: A month before my mother died, my husband and I closed on an apartment in the south of France. Living part of the year in France was a dream I’d had for decades and that my husband made his own. I spent my junior year in Paris and had an early start as a translator, working with Yves Bonnefoy during my undergraduate and graduate studies. He was a towering figure in 20th century French poetry, and I was unbelievably fortunate that he accepted to work with me when several of our most eminent translators were also translating his writings. I was unable to continue translating once I started teaching full-time—I barely managed to keep writing my own work—and we couldn’t afford trips to France, either, until much later in our lives. Once I left full-time teaching, I went back into translation, and I am happy that a collection of poems by the Algerian-French poet Souad Labbize is coming out this fall. Yves wouldn’t have approved of her, but I think he would have appreciated the other poet I’m working with, the Québecoise Hélène Dorion. I discovered both during post-retirement trips to France, where I stumbled on the Marché de la Poésie in Paris, an open-air poetry festival and book fair free to the public in the center of the city. There are monuments and memorials to poets all over France, and murals including one of Yves’s poems and "The Drunken Boat" by Arthur Rimbaud, in both cases the complete text. French writers and editors bemoan the changes they see in the French audience for poetry, but it’s paradise compared to this country! When I had my hair cut this spring in my small town, the hairdresser wanted to talk about what poetry she and daughter enjoyed reading. My Chicago hairdresser is a friend, and she loves to talk about books—but she doesn’t read poetry. There is so much else to love in France, the beauty of the landscape and of even the simplest farm buildings, the way history is lived in, not preserved only in museums. And of course the food, and how central meals are to people’s lives—families and friends eating together, as is increasingly rare in American families. Now for two months in spring and two months in autumn, we live in Uzès, a small and ancient town in the foothills of the Cévennes. That has made me think a great deal about what “home” means, which is the genesis of this poem. The poem had a much more usual process for me. It started from an email conversation with Angela Torres, my editor at Rhino Reviews. I was in France in October 2022 and beginning to think about coming back to Chicago as she and I planned ahead for future book reviews. I found myself struggling with the phrase “going home,” since the place I was leaving was also home, or becoming home. My first draft, from the same day as the email, is a scribble in my notebook, very long-lined and expansive, even expository. In my files are several revisions, in response to feedback from two of my critique groups: a process of both clarifying and compressing the lines so that they would flow and would give the reader information they’d need without going overboard. The initial idea didn’t evolve, however. Rain ’s coming cry the birds from their hiding places Maybe maybe not rain doesn’t always keep its promises Yes, rain insist the birds And yes, the air is thick the sky darkening but not a breath of wind Rain, for sure the birds are convinced they know more than I do The picnickers believe them they’ve packed their baskets and left except for the two more interested in kisses than picnics It’s hard in a drought to think of anything other than rain Except for the two kissing who don’t have any trouble thinking about something else Whisper the birds we told you And yes, three drops I counted About the poem: This is a very recent poem, from May of this year. It brings together two of the threads in my recent poetry, my home in the south of France, and my concern for what we are doing to the natural world. I’ve always written nature poetry since I was a teenager living in rural Connecticut. But while my early poems were all celebratory, many of my poems now are laments, though I am mindful of what Geffrey Davis said in this year’s AWP panel on Writing the Wounded World: "We can’t only write about the wounds. We must continue to celebrate the beauty that remains." France is suffering through a multi-year drought, with markedly higher temperatures than in the past. Even in the four years that we have been returning once or twice a year, we can feel the difference. This year, wildfires broke out early, and river levels are dangerously low despite some spring storms that moistened the surface without penetrating to the deeper water tables. Our département (like a state, but smaller) was already at the highest level of alert for water this spring, with stringent restrictions on water use even in agriculture, despite how much of the Gard is agricultural land. Rain becomes an obsession. But while the need for rain and our dry river beds were very much on my mind, I wanted to keep this poem light, a back-and-forth with the birds I heard all around me. Many days, I walk along the Avron River, one of the tributaries of the Gardon, which feeds into the Rhône. I developed the first draft in my head during my walk on May 9 and wrote it down as soon as I returned to my desk, in almost the form it has now. My readers enjoyed it and didn’t suggest many changes. I fiddled a little but didn’t make significant revisions. I am usually an obsessive reviser, so I find myself surprised that two of the poems I’m sharing with you emerged so completely in first draft. Talking To My Mother (Still) I am still (you sitting at the piano) I am still talking to you about (you were learning a piece by Poulenc and you asked) I am still talking to you about the music that filled every house where you lived that flooded my childhood years (what did he mean by this instruction respirer longuement) I am still talking though you cannot hear me cannot read the program from the concert I heard though you are not here at all except in this one-sided conversation that I insist on continuing You have lost interest you had lost interest before you stood up from the piano and left the room About the poem: My mother died in March 2022. It was the death she chose, suffering from heart disease at the age of 93 and living in Washington State where she could opt for Death with Dignity. That didn’t make it easy, for her or for anyone around her. I had always been close to my mother, though we had huge fights as I was growing up. Our relationship became much more strained as she aged in a city where I could not be as present as she wanted me to be, and the last years were very painful for us both, the last weeks my brother and I spent with her even more so. A year and some months later, I am still coming to terms with her absence and with my connection to her. That connection is strongest when I listen to music. My mother was a pianist who had ambitions to be a performer when she was young; I have a portrait of her as a child, all dressed up for a recital. Her mother raised her and her brother in music, paid for lessons and concert tickets, though she was supporting the children alone on a department store clerk’s salary after her husband’s early death from MS. My mother majored in music at Antioch and was assistant to the department chair, Walter Anderson, who brought Black and blacklisted performers to perform on campus (it was the 1940s) and initiated my parents into the Civil Rights movement, along with supporting my mother’s love of music. But my parents married while still in college, and my mother was pregnant almost right away. She had to drop out of school and she spent much of her life as a conventional wife and mother, supplementing my father’s earnings with piano lessons but otherwise not pursuing her own dreams. Later in life, she was able to complete her education, pursue a career in government and then administering a music school, join amateur performance groups, and attend all the concerts she wanted to hear. She had hoped that I would play piano as she had, especially since I have my father’s big hands though none of my mother’s musical ability. I think I am a writer in part because she enthusiastically supported my early efforts, perhaps as a substitute for the music lessons that I refused once I reached adolescence. I attend concerts as often as I can and listen to classical music at home, especially when I am writing. I am most likely to think about her and continue a conversation with her in my mind when there is music playing, though the conversation can still be full of tension, as it is in this poem, written around the anniversary of her death. Going back into my notebook and files, the poem seems to have emerged almost in final form—I can only find one draft, though I sent the poem to one of my critique groups (a group that includes Catherine Anderson, Pat Daneman and Cathy Essinger). My readers wanted more background information, but I find myself resistant to adding exposition. I did change the title to clarify who the speaker is addressing. Annie Klier Newcomer founded a not-for-profit, Kansas City Spirit, that served children in metropolitan Kansas for a decade. Annie volunteers in chess and poetry after-school programs in Kansas City, Missouri. She and her husband, David, and the staff of the Overland Park Arboretum & Botanical Gardens are working to develop The Emily Dickinson Garden in hopes of bringing art and poetry educational programs to their community. Annie helms the Flapper Press Poetry Café—dedicated to celebrating poets from around the world and to encouraging everyone to both read and write poetry! If you enjoyed this Flash Poet interview, we invite you to explore more here! The Flapper Press Poetry Café Presenting a wide range of poetry with a mission to promote a love and understanding of poetry for all. We welcome submissions for compelling poetry and look forward to publishing and supporting your creative endeavors. Submissions may also be considered for the Pushcart Prize. 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By Elizabeth Gracen: "My contribution to the world is my ability to draw. I will draw as much as I can for as many people as I can for as long as I can. Drawing is still basically the same as it has been since prehistoric times. It brings together man and the world. It lives through magic." — Keith Haring, March 18, 1982 As the Keith Haring: Art Is for Everybody exhibit at the Broad Museum in downtown Los Angeles came to a close in November 2023, I was able to make it in just under the wire for the last day of the show, determined not to miss the iconic artist’s extensive retrospective at what has become my favorite museum in the city. Familiar with Haring’s almost universally recognized symbolic images and with his prolific chalk art from when I lived in the Big Apple and road the NYC subway system in the mid-80s, I wasn’t quite prepared for the vibrancy and scope of Haring’s work displayed at the Broad. Not only did the show expand my appreciation of his art and activist outreach, it reignited in me the drive to create—to never stop making art. From what I know of Haring’s philosophy, that reaction falls right in line with what he endeavored to inspire with his work. As familiar as I was with Haring’s most iconic symbolic images—the "Barking Dog," the radiant baby, the heart, the dancing figures, and the electric radiating lines so identifiable in his extensive output—I had never experienced the large-scale tarpaulin pieces reinforced with grommets that reached almost floor to ceiling throughout the exhibit. You wouldn’t think that repeated imagery and simple iconography could elicit emotion, but Haring’s determined use of line, especially in these larger works, exudes powerful emotion, drawing the viewer into his world, insisting that your own emotions participate in the dance. With heady contemporaries such as Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat, and heavily influenced by the alternative intellectual and literary interests of William S. Burroughs, Jean Dubuffet, Pierre Alechinsky, and others, Haring combined his common interest in popular culture and public graffiti with his own influences from cartooning, Egyptian hieroglyphics, break-dancing, and Semiotics—the study of signs and symbols in the communication of meaning. His own mission was to bring art to the masses, to create an accessible, true public art that freed it from elitist curation—even as he simultaneously realized the practical benefit of allowing highbrow dealers of the art world to elevate his prices and spread his work internationally. In his short twelve-year career, Haring rose from underground street artist to art superstar. From the hundreds of chalk drawings made on blank black paper advertising panels throughout the NYC subway system to more than 50 public artworks created between 1982–1989 in cities all over the world, Haring continued to develop his passion for creating art outside of traditional spaces, bridging the divide between pop culture and high art. Throughout his career, he continued to work in a variety of mediums. His vibrant repetition of images found their way into sculptures, public murals, performance videos and installations, collages, over 3,000 works on paper, and nearly 300 paintings. Various Installations, Broad Museum: Art Is for Everybody, Keith Haring Haring’s energetic artistic output combined a true activist's heart with the savvy business sense of an artist who began with a short-lived career in commercial advertising. Although he faced criticism in the late 80s for opening the Pop Shop—a Soho retail store that sold his images on everything from T-shirts, buttons, posters, and magnets—Haring considered the venture an extension of his philosophy that established a dynamic immediacy between his work and the viewer, allowing low-cost access to art. Shortly after he was diagnosed with AIDS in 1988, he established the Keith Haring Foundation, an organization that funded AIDS organizations and provided imagery to bring awareness to the disease and educate the masses. Since his death, there has been a much- needed cultural shift regarding the appropriation of non-Western references made by artists in their work. No doubt Haring's obvious influences from a variety of indigenous cultures, Egyptian hieroglyphics, totemic sculptural elements, symbology, and style come under scrutiny in this matter. However controversial this subject may be regarding his work, his career was dedicated to many important social causes. Haring's public artworks (many of which were created for charities, hospitals, and children's day-care centers and orphanages) made an immediate impact on the communities touched by his art. "I don't know if I have five months or five years, but I know my days are numbered. This is why my activities and projects are so important now. To do as much as possible as quickly as possible. I'm sure that what will live on after I die is important enough to make sacrifices of my personal luxury and leisure time now. Work is all I have and art is more important than life." — Keith Haring, March 28, 1987 The Keith Haring: Art Is for Everybody exhibit travels to the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto and then to the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis in 2024. It is an exciting, educational, and inspirational viewing. If you happen to live near one of these museums, don't miss this powerful show! To read more about this retrospective and the artist, visit: The Keith Haring Foundation Five Things to Know: Keith Haring The Art and Dancing Figures of Keith Haring "I am not a beginning. I am not an end. I am a link in a chain. The strength of which depends on my own contributions, as well as the contributions of those before and after me."    — Keith Haring, November 7, 1978 Elizabeth Gracen is the owner of Flapper Press & Flapper Films.

By Angel Lopez: Aquarius Season wants to challenge you to align more intensely with your transformation into a deeper, authentic expression of yourself. You may feel like you can’t get any more authentic than you already are; but then you find yourself responding to something or someone from an old thought pattern or way of being that’s tied up in triggers and emotions rooted in your past. We’re actually all in a place right now where the wounded children who live inside of us are looking for sensitive attention, and it can be easy to give in to those negative feelings and just want to live there. We might even still be seeking the affection or validation we didn’t receive as kids. But this lingering in what wasn’t can stifle your evolution, keeping that next great version of you at arm’s length. It also traps your playful inner child who wants to create and enjoy. So focus this season on recognizing and acknowledging those past hurts, mentalities, and hard lessons that are still hanging out but not contributing to the goals, risks, and changes that you have percolating for the future. Thank them and throw them a party. But then tell them it’s time to go. Some may loiter or pick a fight in defense of their role in your well-being, but you know what and who it’s time to let go of. And now is the time to set them free. Read for your Sun sign but also check your Rising, if you know it. ARIES You may be holding on to habits and practices that aren’t supporting the work you want to be accomplishing, nor the person you know deep down you’re capable of being right now. Change isn’t something that is entirely hard for you to accept, except when it comes to your identity. You’re so proud of your personal achievements and who you’ve become to reach them that you can cling to certain ways of being, thinking they’re the secret sauce to your success when they were really just part of a specific time in your life. Approaches are meant to be shifted. Routines should alter in response to the needs of the moment. It’s time to take stock of how you’re approaching life and the routines you hold. Make sure they’re supporting you in achieving the needs of this moment and if not, it’s time to adjust. TAURUS Is your job or current career path in line with what really matters to you and the mark you want to make on this world? You have an opportunity in the coming weeks to start investigating that question with greater clarity and honesty. It’s also going to become harder to hide any frustrations or resentments you have in your work life, so it will benefit you to start making adjustments that’ll improve your well-being. You need a genuine connection to the things that call for so much of your time or else you’re digging yourself a hole of discontent. The key is in making sure that your work really connects with something you have a passionate interest in. A baker at heart should not be doing other people’s taxes. You don’t have to scream "I quit”" tomorrow, but you do have to begin to work more closely with the dream. GEMINI Honey, you need a voyage. That doesn’t mean you have to embark on a cruise around the world—unless that’s calling to you and is accessible. Really, you would just benefit from approaching life from more of an explorer’s perspective. Not to say you don’t know your way around an adventure, because we know you’re not one to sit still. But what if you had more of a focused sum to all these parts? And what if what you were exploring to uncover was the most authentic, unique core of you? With that goal, you may find how some of what you busy yourself with is just that: things to keep you busy. And those things may be pulling you further from the truth rather than closer. So what adventures can you embark on that actually support and nurture your goals, heart, and purpose rather than help you avoid them? CANCER You are entering deep into the transformation zone, so ready to elevate to the next level of your personal evolution. This calls for a heftier commitment to the people, places, and things that make up your life. Start with the people by going through the contact list and marking who it is that really sees you in all your truest, authentic glory. How can you then shift your life to commit more time and space to those folks who actually bolster the real you? With that comes some challenging conversations or decisions that distance you from those who aren’t filling your cup. You could just put them on a personal Do Not Disturb list. Whatever works for you, trust that the changes in the people you give love and life to will only help you to give a richer experience of love and life to yourself. LEO It could be time to shake up who you see on the regular and welcome in some different perspectives on the current events of your life. You’ve got some much simmering in different areas of your life that it’s easy to circle the drain when it comes to finding answers. Who are the people in your life that you consider close friends but don’t get a chance to talk to as much because they’re just not in your closest and most current circle? Go beyond that circle and reach out to the people who might have pieces of you that have been lost or are able to recognize when you’re lying to yourself. You need more honesty right now, as well as a chance to reclaim those lost parts of you. Get those people into rotation again and use their fresh eyes to gain some exciting understanding on your life. VIRGO This time is shining a light on how you structure your routine but not in the way that you’re used to. That activity usually involves working up a plan or a schedule that centers the practical and tangible, your go-to safe words. However, these next few weeks are asking you to give greater attention to joy and play. Are there actions and exercises that you can allot time to that inspire nothing more but pure laughter? What invitations can you send to your inner child that elicit enjoyable experiences fit for the five-year-old version of you? Can you take pause from your responsibilities long enough to give yourself some time to frolic in your creativity and silliness? This may evoke some resistance, but if you can make the commitment, you’ll find the serious parts of your life also becoming more enjoyable and productive. LIBRA How can you become so much more at home in your creative spirit that it just becomes a part of the family? Now, you may already consider yourself incredibly creative, or you may be the complete opposite and feel like you lack any sort of artistic gift whatsoever. Wherever you stand on the spectrum, know that these next few weeks offer you an opportunity to deepen the relationship you have with the artist in you so that you can approach your life with greater creative flair. Start by releasing any fears or inhibitions you have around connecting to a greater sense of risk and fun. All great creatives know how to stand at the edge of vulnerability and dive head first into the unknown. It’s the nature of sharing their work. So try to see where you’ve been avoiding vulnerability yourself and jump into a braver expression of yourself. SCORPIO This could be a good time to look back and reflect on all the life you’ve lived, taking stock of the past successes you’ve achieved and challenges you’ve overcome. This is actually a healthy way to get a sense of where it is you want to be going, to reconnect with past versions of you and see what was motivating them. What inspired them? What scared them? What allowed them to take the risks they did? Then, take a look and see how in alignment you are with those past iterations of you. You’ll probably find you’ve evolved out of most of their motivating factors, but have you also lost some of their hutzpah that could now come in handy? You have probably gained a better perspective on yourself. So consider how to take the good of the past and combine it more cohesively with the person you are now. SAGITTARIUS This season comes with a captivating, growth-inducing challenge, if you choose to take it. It’s a challenge of the mind, where you’re being asked to recognize a mentality or belief pattern that you’ve believed in so deeply but has actually been impeding the life transformation you’re trying to manifest. It might be obvious, like you constantly telling yourself to be more practical to the point where you’re withholding joy; or the opposite, that you’re so invested in some form of magical thinking around your finances that zeroing out your bank account just feels like a silly nudge from the Universe. It’s time to acknowledge where you’re not completely telling the truth on yourself, and thus giving your power away. If you can get honest about some way of thinking that isn’t truly supporting you but rather keeping you stuck, then you’ll unlock the gates to the next plateau. CAPRICORN You’ve either been fighting with or giving over to the major transformation that has been trying to move through you, and it’s now time to come to terms with which side you’re landing on. Are you going to recognize and release the outdated parts of your identity and personality that cause most of your greatest issues, or will you hold on to them so tightly that you concretize into a stubborn version of yourself that will be sparring until the death about its relevancy? Let’s take the former route, where a mountain of excitement and inspiration is waiting ahead of you. This is the time to innovate the way the world sees you, not to double down on how they’ve seen you. Step into a present-day, more unique version of you, expressing all that you’ve learned, the good and the bad, showing off your brilliance rather than your cynic. AQUARIUS The evolution of you has been beautiful for those around you to watch, but you’ve only just begun. There is so much more of this new you to be born that it’s shocking if you actually feel like a remotely whole person at all. That’s because a lot of your new ways have been responses to challenging life circumstances, changes that have been forced upon you. And you’ve integrated them in gorgeous ways, but it’s time to move beyond the real world and to spend more time in the ethereal realm. There, you’ll find clues on how to continue your beautiful metamorphosis and bring some visioning into the mix. Meditate. Vision quest. Dream. Dream yourself into the next iteration of you. What goals can you envision blossoming into reality? If you can manifest things in the vision space, you’ll find the motivation to bring your dreams into your waking life. PISCES It is your astrological birthright to have a powerful relationship with one or all of the following: spirituality, dreams, creative inspiration, music, lack of focus, sensitivity, “going with the flow,” and/or substances or experiences that help you go bye-bye to the “real world.” These are core aspects of the generic Pisces experience, and these next few weeks want to bring your attention to them. Weed out the ones that are holding your personal evolution back and forge a healthier and more consistent relationship with those that could align you better with the dreams and goals you want to head toward. Consider the ways of being that contribute to you alienating yourself from your loved ones; those should be left by the wayside. You need friends. You need community. You need to be seen as all of you and allow yourself to be loved unconditionally in all your purest Piscean glory. Angel Lopez is a film producer, writer, astrologer, and co-host of the podcast, THE SPIRITUAL GAYZ alongside his husband, our Spiritual Guru Brandon Alter. Angel has been studying and working with both tarot and astrology for twenty years. He hosted the astrology web-series, ASTRO TALK WITH ANGEL, and writes the blog ASTROLOGY REALNESS. He has also had pieces published on Upworthy.com and The Huffington Post. On the film side, Angel produced the Sundance Film Festival award winning film DEAR WHITE PEOPLE, as well as the features THE DINNER and STATE LIKE SLEEP. He also wrote and directed his own short film, I CAN’T WITH YOU, which had its premiere at the 2016 HollyShorts Film Festival, and he recently finished producing filmmaker Justin Simien’s second feature, BAD HAIR. Visit www.thespiritualgayz.com to learn more. To sign up for The Spiritual Gayz newsletter click here.

By Rena Justine: Just as the invention of the printing press in 1440 revolutionized how we accessed books and reading, the constant innovations in digital technology today are transforming how we read. Perhaps the most significant digital shift in reading habits is the rise of the ebook. Based on data from Mordor Intelligence, the ebook market size is estimated at $17.2 billion in 2024 and is expected to go on to reach $21.73 billion by 2029. Some key factors driving the market include the continuous technical developments and improvements in reading devices and the multilingual feature of ebooks. At the same time, environmental protection campaigns from various governments to reduce paper use are crucial in boosting demand for ebooks. By now, the discourse on reading in the digital age has started toeing the lines beyond just ebooks. With the rise of emerging technologies such as AI, multimedia storytelling, and the ever-growing internet, our reading habits have also understandably adjusted. Let's look at some of the ways the digital world is transforming how we read. Increased Accessibility One of the critical advantages of reading digitally is that it opens access to much more material than traditional print. Ebook subscription service Everand has a rich selection of ebooks spanning a variety of genres, authors, and categories. For reading enthusiasts, this includes Pulitzer Prize winners such as Elizabeth Kolbert's The Sixth Extinction and more niche and genre-based readings such as Colleen Hoover or George Orwell. If you have trouble finding printed copies of certain books or don't live near a library, a digital ebook platform like Everand is as great as it can get. Better yet, you can also find these titles in audiobook format. Readers can access these ebooks and audiobooks on various browsers and platforms—iOS or Android—and even offline. This is great for people who may want to read on the go or do not have consistent internet access. Interactive Storytelling Aside from making the joy of reading and books much more accessible to many, reading in the digital world also means more interactivity. In the case of the British Library, its Digital Storytelling exhibition from June 2023 is exactly how it sounds. The exhibition featured highly regarded commercial classics of interactive digital storytelling, boasting playable stories such as the 2014 steampunk narrative fiction game 80 Days and intimate personal narratives such as c ya laterrrr. Visitors could even access some of the pieces from their phones through conveniently placed QR codes. As digital storytelling is fairly flexible, reading can extend beyond traditional text. Many of the complex exhibits shown by the British Library displayed videos that acted as playthroughs of the story games and physical items inspired by the separate pieces. These additional media helped transform the interactive reading experience into a more immersive and multimedia form. Social Media Impact Finally, it would be challenging to discuss the digital world without talking about social media—which is almost, technically, a digital world unto itself. Today, the rise of decentralized social media platforms such as Bluesky and Mastodon focus heavily on democratizing social media, prioritizing digital networks and independent servers not controlled by a single monopolizing company. These platforms center on groups and niches, allowing users to tailor their feeds to the content they want to see, from cat pics to book recommendations, instead of advertising content. This makes the sharing of reading content and materials much more effortless, engaging, and entertaining for people and sets the stage for open discussions. At the same time, exposure to social media, according to a Computers & Education study, also helps equip us with essential digital reading skills. These include complex applications of prior knowledge sources, inferential reasoning strategies, and self-regulated reading processes. Rena Justine is a teaching consultant who provides guidance to schools across the country. Through her online articles, she hopes to impart her 10 years of experience to help others. She spends most of her free time in the park with her husband and three children.

By Elizabeth Gracen: I do love a special good luck charm. It's a gentle reminder to lighten up, not give up hope, and trust a little more. Trust my instinct. Trust in the good in people. Trust that I'm growing and making my way through this beautiful, horrible world with my head held high, learning from my mistakes and sending out good vibrations to world. A couple years ago, I came across the Tree of Life pendants on Instagram and reached out to Dawn D. Bengel, the owner of Divine Sanctuary, to invite her to sell the pendants on Flapperpress.com and to place my own order for a large selenite stone wrapped with a red Tree of Life. I did a bit of research before I purchased it and read that selenite has powerful healing qualities that remove negativity to promote peace, calm, mental clarity, and well-being. It sounded like the perfect good luck charm for me. Now, I always slip it over my neck when I'm feeling blue and pessimistic, and I swear it does the trick. When I saw that Dawn was offering smaller versions of the pendants this year, I invited her to sell them in our Flapper Press Shop. Divine Sanctuary in Jackson, Michigan Divine Sanctuary has been in business since 2018 and is located in Jackson, Michigan, with a bustling website business that offers a wide variety of esoteric and beautiful items to add to your spiritual jewelry box. I've already purchased a few more pendants as gifts and a special carnelian wrapped in silver for myself. You can never have enough good luck! Check out our Flapper Press Shop to pick out your new good luck charm, but in the meantime, I've reached out again to ask Dawn more about how the idea of creating Tree of Life pendants came to fruition and delve a little deeper into her philosophy behind her work. Please enjoy our latest interview with Dawn D. Bengel of Divine Sanctuary! EG: Dawn, Flapper Press is excited to feature your beautiful and mysterious Tree of Life pendants in our SHOP again! Welcome! Would you tell our readers a little bit about yourself, your designs, and your shop? DB: Thank you for the opportunity! I started Divine Sanctuary as a personal blog about 10 years ago as a way to help myself cope with a dark night of the soul I was going through. That led to me wanting to create a gemstone mediation mala for myself [since], at the time, they were nowhere to be found. So I got some gemstone beads and made one for myself. It was such a beautiful feeling while making it, so I got more beads and started making more. Before I knew it, I had over 65 malas without homes. So I went to a craft show with my malas, and when I came home my partner, Steve, recommended that we clear out some space in our computer store for them. That is how Divine Sanctuary became a store. I wanted to offer that peace and love I found in my blog space and spread that feeling as much as possible. EG: I've always had "witchy" tendencies—my grandmother used to use a fake crystal ball to predict the future for all my friends when we were in grade school. She had palm reading books around her house and told me elaborate stories about the war between the fairies and the spiders in her attic (!), so I've always believed in magic. It's come in handy to have a wild imagination in my profession. If you were going to explain the properties of crystals and stones to someone who might not believe in such things, how would you describe it to them? DB: I meet a lot of skeptics in my store. When presented with questions about whether they work or how they work, I explain that everything in this world has an energetic vibration, even the stones. Because of how they're formed in nature, each stone has various properties associated with those vibrations. I once had a couple come in and they both chose a Tree of Life pendant based on what they thought looked pretty. When I package them up, I put a description card for the stone in the bag with them. So they left the store and three minutes later came running back in to tell me that they read their cards and couldn't believe how much they needed those exact stones. Some of my favorite stories are of people who choose a stone because they think it's pretty, and when they read the card, they're mind-blown at how much they needed that particular vibration in their life at that time. EG: Tell our readers about the particular stones in the Flapper Press Collection and the symbology of the Tree of Life. DB: For me, the greatest symbology of the Tree of Life has everything to do with being rooted. I often say that if you aren't well rooted, like the tree, it's much harder to reach for the stars, or our full potential, without toppling over. It also symbolizes the phrase "as above, so below" or "as in heaven, so on earth" for me. For the Flapper Press collection, I've chosen amethyst, black agate, carnelian, clear quartz, green aventurine, labradorite, opalite, rose quartz, and tiger eye. Amethyst is a great stone for anxiety and connecting to one's higher self. Black agate is my favorite stone for assisting people through grief. Carnelian is a creativity and motivation stone. Clear quartz is my favorite everything stone because you can program it to do whatever you want. Green aventurine is a great stone for luck and abundance. Labradorite is an amazing transition and transformation stone, and I give it to high school graduates in my life to aid in their transition from high school to "adulthood." Opalite is a wonderful stone to aid in verbalizing feelings, along with assisting in business matters. Rose quartz is the ultimate love stone, whether speaking of romantic love, sibling love, parent love, child love, or self love. Tiger eye is an outstanding protection, good luck, and focus stone. EG: How did you get interested in creating these Tree of Life pendants? Why are they important to you and your creativity? Can you share a bit about your process in creating them? DB: The Tree of Life pendants themselves were born of the suggestion by a friend who thought it would be a great focal point on the mala. I thought she was crazy to think I could make the gemstone-wrapped tree, but I tried it. Five years later, I'm still making Tree of Life pendants, putting time and love into each one as I hand wrap them. Each pendant takes approximately 40 minutes to create and is infused with love, peace, and joy while I make it. While some of the themes remain the same (I can create 2 amethyst pendants with a silver tree), each pendant is unique because it's hand wrapped. I couldn't make two identical pendants if I tried . . . and I have tried! EG: Why do you think so many people (like me) believe in esoteric practices? In this current world where so many people feel hopeless here around the holidays, why should we believe in magic? DB: I think so many people believe in esoteric practices because it is a way to hope in a world that often feels filled with gloom but [is] also a way for people to feel in control of their own lives. It is for me, anyway. The holiday season brings many people down and has them often focusing on what they think they lack rather than what they actually have. But, it's a new year, and I've seen magic in action! Some people call "magic" prayer, some people call it "casting spells," some people believe in good luck charms. I believe that it all leads back to esoteric practice and a belief in magic. We are magical beings, we just have to stop listening to the people who tell us otherwise. Here at Divine Sanctuary, I strive to make everyone feel loved and accepted for who they are. That is a magical feeling I hope everyone walks away with. Visit the Flapper Press Shop to order your Tree of Life pendant, and Happy New Year! Elizabeth Gracen is the owner of Flapper Press & Flapper Films.

By Kimberly Hayes: The Gen Z Collective serves, documents, and supports Generation Z and the organizations by, for, and about them. Contact us today to learn more! Stress, an uninvited but constant companion in our lives, demands our attention. It sneaks into various facets of our existence to affect our physical and mental well-being. Needless to say, recognizing and tackling stress sources can significantly elevate your quality of life. This article, courtesy of The Gen Z Collective, delves into eight critical areas where stress often hides, offering actionable steps to steer your life toward tranquility and happiness. The Roots of Tension: Unearthing Stress Triggers Uncovering the root causes of stress is the first step in conquering it. Take a moment to reflect on various aspects of your life. Are personal relationships causing distress? Is your job a source of constant pressure? Maybe financial concerns keep you up at night. By pinpointing these triggers, you can begin to address them systematically. Financial Equilibrium: Easing Monetary Worries Financial stress is a common burden. Enhancing your credit score is an essential step in relieving this strain. A strong credit score above 740 is pivotal for securing loans with favorable terms. It reflects your reliability to lenders, affecting interest rates and repayment terms. Tackling financial stress involves understanding and improving your credit score so you can pave the way for a more secure financial future. Career Contentment: Finding Fulfillment at Work Workplace stress can significantly impact your mental energy. A career change might be a refreshing solution if your current job seems unrewarding or excessively stressful. Such a transition can significantly enhance your mental well-being, and online degree programs present a flexible pathway to new professional avenues in this context. Nutritional Harmony: Diet’s Role in Stress Management Your diet profoundly impacts stress levels. Integrating a balanced diet rich in fruits, vegetables, and whole grains is crucial. Everyday Health points out that these foods not only nourish your body but also stabilize mood and energy levels. A healthy diet is a powerful tool in your arsenal against stress, promoting both physical health and mental clarity. The Mindset Makeover: Cultivating Positivity A positive outlook is a shield against life's stressors. Embracing gratitude, optimism, and self-compassion builds resilience. This mindset shift is not about ignoring challenges but about approaching them with a constructive attitude. Cultivating positivity can change how you perceive and respond to stress. Slumber Strategies: The Importance of Rest Quality sleep is fundamental in combating stress. Seven to nine hours of restful sleep each night rejuvenates your mind and body. Good sleep hygiene enhances your ability to handle stress and improves overall health; so remember that it’s not a luxury but a necessity for stress management. Alternative Therapies for Coping with Stress There are various alternative therapies for coping with stress: CBD (Cannabidiol): CBD is a non-psychoactive compound derived from cannabis plants. Some people use CBD in the form of premium THCA flower to help alleviate stress and anxiety. It is believed to work by interacting with the body's endocannabinoid system, which plays a role in regulating stress responses. Mindfulness Meditation: Mindfulness meditation involves focusing your attention on the present moment without judgment. This practice can help reduce stress by promoting relaxation and increasing self-awareness. Many people find that regular mindfulness meditation sessions help them manage stress more effectively. Acupuncture: Acupuncture is an ancient Chinese healing technique that involves inserting thin needles into specific points on the body. Some people find acupuncture to be effective in reducing stress and anxiety. It is thought to work by promoting the flow of energy (Qi) and releasing tension. Yoga: Yoga is a mind-body practice that combines physical postures, breathing exercises, and meditation. Verywell Mind notes that it can help reduce stress by promoting relaxation, improving flexibility, and increasing mindfulness. Regular yoga practice is often recommended for stress management. It's important to note that the effectiveness of these alternative therapies can vary from person to person. If you are considering any of these approaches, it's a good idea to consult with a health-care professional or therapist to determine which therapy or combination of therapies may be most suitable for your specific needs. Additionally, alternative therapies should not replace medical treatment if you have a medical condition or severe stress. Always seek advice from a health-care provider when necessary. The Balancing Act: Mastering Work-Life Harmony Establishing a healthy work-life balance is essential for reducing stress. Setting clear boundaries between work and personal life, prioritizing self-care, and making time for hobbies are vital steps. This balance is about respecting your need for downtime and ensuring that work doesn't consume your entire existence. Embarking on a journey to identify and manage stress leads to a healthier, happier existence. You can significantly lower stress levels by focusing on the areas outlined and implementing these strategies. It's about taking charge and finding equilibrium in all life areas. Embrace these changes, and you'll navigate toward a calmer, more fulfilling life. Kimberly Hayes is Chief Blogger for Public Health Alert as she studies to become a crisis intervention counselor. She enjoys writing about health and wellness and created Public Health Alert to help keep the public informed about the latest developments in popular health issues and concerns.