About

Hello and welcome to my blog!  My hope is that you will find something here that will whet your intellectual appetite and edify your faith.

Feel free to also check out my website for more about me.

What This Blog Is

This is a personal blog.  It also serves, in some ways, as a law blog and an online portfolio.  I have so many passions — God, faith, freedom, law, fairness, anti-racist activism, fat-feminism and size acceptance, health and wellness and female health in particular, reading, writing, swimming, bachata, Zumba…the list goes on and on.   I have one blog on healthy eating already, but I wanted to write about so much more. This blog is my attempt to unite my many, varied, seemingly disparate interests in one place.  It is my way to share my passions and work with you.

On my vision board, I have a cut-out from a magazine of a soup advertisement that reads, “What will it stir in you?”  Essentially, this blog is a collection of the things that “stir” me — to writing and to action.  My hope is that the information will stir you too, or at least make you think.

What This Blog is Not

Legal Advice

I like commenting on issues in the legal sphere.  However, I don’t purport to give any legal advice on this blog and nothing written on this blog should be construed, relied upon or acted upon as such.  That is my disclaimer.  My legal commentary or any legal information found herein is not legal advice.  If you need legal advice, I encourage you to formally retain a lawyer.

Perspectives and Endorsements

I see a lot of things around the web that catch my eye and that make me think.  I like thinking.  I like hearing and reading the thoughts of others, because then it challenges and refines my own thinking.  That said, my posting something does not constitute an explicit endorsement of a particular perspective or person.  In fact, I may post material with views with which I do not agree.  Just because I share something does not mean I agree with all of the viewpoints expressed in the article or video etc., or even the views of the person in particular.  It just means that I found the video or article interesting and it made me think. That’s all.

Likewise, the views on my blog are my own and are not necessarily representative of any body, group of persons or organization, such as the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

You should know that:

I overshare.  As a blogger, I am an oversharer by nature.  But I’ve only found this oversharing to deepen our connections between one another and make us all feel a little less alone.   Anyways, you’ve been forewarned.

I keep it real.  Like really real.  So if you are a prude or close-minded or into fakeness and false pretences, this is not the blog for you.

I’m a little long-winded.  I once read somewhere that blog posts should be around 400 – 500 words.  Mine are typically over 1000 words.  What can I say?  I have a lot to write about and an opinion on basically everything.  I’ve never kept to a word limit in my life (sorry to my former teachers and professors).  I’m more of an essayist.   So, if long literary pieces scare you, and if reading is not your thing, this is not the blog for you.

Guiding Principles

This blog is guided by the following principles:

“You own everything that happened to you. Tell your stories. If people wanted you to write warmly about them, they should have behaved better.”
― Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life

“If something inside of you is real, we will probably find it interesting, and it will probably be universal. So you must risk placing real emotion at the center of your work. Write straight into the emotional center of things. Write toward vulnerability. Risk being unliked. Tell the truth as you understand it. If you’re a writer you have a moral obligation to do this. And it is a revolutionary act—truth is always subversive.”
― Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life

“Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.” – Dr. Seuss

“Figuring out what the public wants, or even what the public is: that’s the job of pollsters and publicists and advertisers. All those people study the marketplace. But the creative artist can change the world. A true writer opens people’s ears and eyes, not merely playing to the public, but changing minds and lives. This is sacred work.” – Allegra Goodman

“I’m a blogger: by vocation, an over-sharer, a navel-gazer, an over-thinker with access to a medium. And yet there are vast swaths of my life that never make it to the public eye.

“And the parts that do show up here or in a book or even on Instagram often only show up after I’ve wrestled the power away from them and I’m ready for my narrative to emerge for Everywhere. I heard Nadia Bolz-Weber call it “writing out of a scar, instead of a wound.”  — Sarah Bessey

“I was once afraid of people saying, “Who does she think she is?” Now I have the courage to stand and say, “This is who I am.”

― Oprah Winfrey

Speaking Engagements and Writing Opportunities

I can write and I can speak.  I am open to opportunities to do both (or either).  I’ve written for law firm blogs, infotainment websites and have had articles published in print media.  I’ve also spoken at schools, churches and conferences across Ontario and Quebec.  For inquiries, please e-mail simonesamuels73@gmail.com, or fill in the form below:

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