Forty-five people gathered for dinner in our neighborhood last month. That’s actually not unusual. What was different this time is that every part of it was run by kids eighteen and under. They organized and planned it. They cooked. They served. The kids built a whole cafe out of nothing, and it worked — the meal was delicious, the room was full, everyone left happy. But I noticed something underneath the success. The miscommunications that happened, and there were a few, di

I got off the phone with my doctor on a cold December morning in 2021, and, still trying to hold back tears, called my friend Karen. Once she answered, the tears came spilling out of me as I asked her for a ride to my next appointment. I called Karen, not because she was the only person available. Because I trusted she would meet me where I was — no questions I didn’t have the energy to answer, no strings, no version of help that came with conditions attached. I knew that bec