Show Your Workings

Cross posting on LinkedIn, random pic for attention, that’s how it works, right?

She takes a deep breath and hits ‘New Post’.

I’ve been considering whether to blog again for some time. I love blogging, telling stories, and connecting with others over shared interests and experiences, but

I bare my soul.

I simply can’t write those “ten things your spreadsheet’s trying to tell you” pap-pieces that exist just to tempt algorithms and create a feedback loop into the AI engines that vomited them out in the first place, making the world an increasingly foggy, beige, and homogenised place.

And it creates vulnerability for me and others.

Those who know me a bit know I’m never short of something to say: I’m an impulsive, impassioned, opinionated, speed-brained, verbal processor interested in most things.

Those who know me better know the dichotomy of how I can say a lot but often struggle to put myself out there in a way that demands attention and, more importantly, recognition and response.

Those who know me intimately know how complex my life and family are and the significant rollercoasters of joy and horror that previous (very successful, internationally-gone-viral, awards-nominated) blogs have created for me and those around me.

Ever been stalked and harangued by an American evangelist pastor who wants to exorcise the autism out of your kid?

No?

It’s an engaging experience.

But recently, I’ve arrived in certain rooms where someone else is telling the story, driving the agenda in a way that I find harmful to the people who I choose to serve, with whom I share a neurodivergent identity.

I’ve felt so much grief and fury and, already in a maelstrom of peri-menopause, it’s been overwhelming to process.

As honestly, it’s my fault. We’re in the age of attention, and I’ve been uncharacteristically blushing wallflower. And as someone who also reckons she knows some shit about marketing. Ugh, my bad.

So yeah, hello, I’m back.

I’m leading the way on ambitious plans this year: to uplift stories and change narratives. So I need to be heard, to speak up, and to tell stories that excite people to want to journey with me, to demonstrate that you can change minds, take up space, and even heal people with stories.

Also, I need connections and amplification, so yeah, hello again.

I will be writing across five themes:

sorry for the long message
complexity and being a long-form human in a short-form world

mostly we play
reflections on play, unschooling and its broader potential

thresholds
co-producing spaces, othering and belonging, low duress environments

holding others
access and intimacy, co-existing and connection, care and nurture

the ephemerist
notes from my personal art practice

In cringing LinkedIn-ness: if you know anyone who may be interested in me or of interest to me, I’d appreciate a share.

This is the prologue, the toe in the water, the accountability post, a first wink at the algorithm.

I’ll be back soon.