Once upon a time a guy  asked a girl, "Will you marry me?"

The girl said,  "No!"

And the girl lived happily ever after and...

Susan notes: this useful re-centering practice is from Fitting in Is Overrated, a wonderful book by Leonard Felder (a psychologist, counselor, author and occasional contributor to my favourite publication Ode Magazine). I blogged about the book here.

When I imagine I'm a grain of sand, it's a pink one under this stunning blue sky...

By Nesima Aberra journalism student.

When I pondered wearing the hijab the summer before my freshman year of college, I thought a lot about what it meant for me to be an American Muslim.

I felt I would be almost betraying everyone I knew with this new addition to my persona, and I didn’t know how people would react.

Grandmother sat outside, as she was wont to do every day.

She saw her granddaughter walking toward her, and she noticed the young girl seemed angry.

She was kicking the dirt, and Grandmother could see there were streaks of tears running down her face.