This post is the third in a three part series. In case you missed them, here are Part One and Part Two. Be sure to sign up for my newsletter to receive blog updates in your inbox!
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As I discussed in Part One, I was inspired by previous retreat experiences to book a night in a hotel and take some time to plan out and make progress on my summer and fall goals and projects.

In Part Two, I talked about how the books You're a Badass at Making Money: Master the Mindset of Wealth and The Business of Being a Writer inspired me to focus on strategic planning while on retreat. I also shared some highlights and pictures from my night away.

Here in Part 3, I’d like to share some tips based on my experience.

Enjoy!

Anyone who knows me, knows that I have collected picture books--with an emphasis on books that center the stories of underrepresented communities--since long before I became a mother.

In light of the treatment of immigrant families on our southern border, yesterday's Supreme Court decision to uphold the President's Muslim ban, and today's announcement about Justice Kennedy's retirement, I'm sharing a few picture books that speak to the issues of the day.

Yo Soy Muslim, My Diary from Here to There, Sonia Sotomayor: A Judge Grows in the Bronx, I Dissent: Ruth Bader Ginsburg Makes her Mark, A is for Activist, and A de Activista​ are some of the books I'm sharing with my son these days.

They are also the books helping me believe in hope.

Now, more than ever, We Need Diverse Books!

​I am eternally grateful for the ones below and I hope they will bring you and yours a glimmer of hope. Please share them with the little people in your life and anyone you love who needs a little light in these dark days.

Full Disclosure:

As always, I encourage you to support your local bookstores and libraries! Be sure to ask them to stock these books if they don't already carry them. 

If, however, you plan to purchase any of these books online, please use my affiliate links below; as an affiliate, I may earn a small commission for qualifying purchases (at no cost to you) which supports my work.

You may also consider finding your favorites on these alternate booksellers' sites:

From Muslim and Latino poet Mark Gonzales comes a touching and lyrical picture book about a parent who encourages their child to find joy and pride in all aspects of their multicultural identity.

Dear little one,
…know you are wondrous.
A child of crescent moons,
a builder of mosques,
a descendant of brilliance,
an ancestor in training.

Written as a letter from a father to his daughter, Yo Soy Muslim is a celebration of social harmony and multicultural identities. The vivid and elegant verse, accompanied by magical and vibrant illustrations, highlights the diversity of the Muslim community as well as Indigenous identity. A literary journey of discovery and wonder, Yo Soy Muslim is sure to inspire adults and children alike.

My plan for today was to post Part 3/3 of my Writing & Strategic Planning Retreat Series, but honestly the crisis at the border has kept me up at night this week and I would be remiss to ignore what is happening in our world.

Imagining children ripped from their parents' arms and detained without a plan for reuniting them with their families is more than we should be able to bear.

And yet... here we are...

So instead of chatting about writing and planning today, I've decided to re-share a FB post that touches on how this has hit home, and, more importantly, that outlines concrete ways you can help.

I have also expanded upon the original post here with even more ways that you can DO something today. And tomorrow. And the next day.

Please keep in mind that the President's Executive Order allows for indefinite detention of families... trading one trauma for another.

Letting families out on bond while they await their immigration hearings is an option, but the President prefers to present imprisonment as the only option. 

We ALL have to DO right now.

We have to Speak Out.

We have to Take to the Streets.

We have to give as much MONEY as we possibly can to those organizations on the front-lines fighting for these families.

Do not succumb to those feelings of helplessness and overwhelm.

We have to to ACT. Then ACT again. And again. And again. Until this insanity is done.

Not in our Name, Comunidad. Not in our Name.

​#familiesbelongtogether ​

This post is the second in a three-part series. In case you missed it, here is Part One and here is Part Three. 

​My DIY Writing & Strategic Planning Retreat was great success!

More on that in a moment, but first I want to share a little bit more about what inspired me to not only write but also strategic plan during this retreat.

In last week's post, I described the ways in which previous writing retreats I've attended and the retreats featured in Poets & Writers inspired my desire to create my own writing retreat.

At the same time, I knew I wanted to do more than write and revise.

I wanted to plan. I needed to plan.

This nerdy excitement over planning surprises no one who knew me in college.

Back then, I'd spend a whole day at the start of the semester meticulously transferring my assignments from syllabi into planner, using intricate color-coded systems.

That love only deepened at my first job after college at The Steppingstone Foundation, an education non-profit in Boston. At Steppingstone, I not only worked with some of the most amazing students and families, I also learned the ins and outs of strategic planning.

Calendar planning in particular was at the heart of managing the work flows for our complex teams and their overlapping projects. And, it's important to note, we did ALL this planning before fancy electronic calendar apps--five years before the first iPhone was even released to be exact.

I’ll never forget those big paper calendars covered in a rainbow of stickies (heaven!). 

That is all to say, my long-term planning impulse is deeply engrained.

(Side note: I'm pretty sure my planning habit helped me "speed" through my PhD program (first one to graduate in my class--only 9(!) years after starting the MA. I concede that 9 years is "speedy" only in Academia)).