I Used to Think

Real LifeJena SchwartzFebruary 2, 2019Comment

Work for the Long Haul

We have to keep expecting more of ourselves. This means questioning our questions, and, more importantly, stepping out of the “I” mentality that keeps our focus inward rather than on the real stakes: People’s lives and systems designed to denigrate and destroy individual dignity and entire communities.

On Having Your Shit Together

Real LifeJena SchwartzJanuary 13, 2019 Comment

Baby Steps Towards a Book

What I want, more than anything, is to feel connected to myself and to others. To find form for what lives in me and yearns for a worldly shape. Stories, for me, and yes, books, are one of those recognizable shapes — a way of literally holding, and offering to others, one’s lived experience — and also of letting it go.

Creative ProcessJena SchwartzJanuary 12, 2019writing, author, dreams, fear, self doubt, coaching clients, marathon, pulitzer prize, jewish, b'nai mitzvah, synagogue, rabbiComment

Dance to the Edges of Your Longing

You may think you have nothing
important to say, nothing important
to give — it’s a lie. Stop trying so hard.
Anyone lucky enough to love you
better know it.

ObservationsJena SchwartzJanuary 7, 2019Monday, Starbucks, real life, entrepreneur, writer, poet

Petrozavodsk, 1990

But I couldn’t help myself. My love of Russia began to bang up against something else: The undeniable truth that Jews had left this place in droves, in search of the religious and cultural freedom of expression. Sure, some small communities had cropped up, particularly in the bigger cities, but here in the north, Jews were an anomaly — suspicious, strange, other.

Jewish LifeJena SchwartzDecember 27, 2018lake onega, russian women, family, lineage, poetry, jewish, freedom, russian jewComment

Accidents Happen, Learning Happens

She went back to her car and the officer came back to ours a few minutes later. Apparently, this was not her first encounter with the other driver. “Oh, I’ve dealt with her before. She’s always like that,” she said.

ObservationsJena SchwartzDecember 15, 2018boundaries, learning, personal growth, accidents, communicationComment

The House with the Painted-Shut Windows

It’s my business to never shut up. To smile only when I feel like smiling. To keep doing my own work of healing a nervous system that cranks up in a millisecond if I feel scolded or scared.

ObservationsJena SchwartzDecember 12, 2018domestic violence, feminism, non-fiction, trauma, zillow, rosh hashanah, ikea, real estate, house huntingComment

Boundaries, Conflict, Forgiveness — Oh My!

You are not required to learn form these experiences, but your world will be richer and your relationships stronger if you do. And there is no avoiding them, lest we live in a fragile, entitled state of needing everything to go our way.

Observations, Real LifeJena SchwartzDecember 9, 2018no, boundaires, communication, love, relationships, anger, writing, mother, parenting, conflict, mistakesComment

Let Go a Little (Then a Lot, Then All the Way)

I bet she’d be intrigued, excited, relieved, and a good deal terrified, knowing some big shit awaited her but also that somehow she’d get through it intact.

ObservationsJena SchwartzNovember 30, 2018future self, midlife, parenting, mothering, life, love, marriage, relationships, coffee, self employed, entrepreneur, letting goComment

Tonight There Is Grief

I am feeling this so acutely tonight, the utter pain in the world, and also the love, the deep love for humanity and the deep repulsion from humanity, too — how can these both be true?

Jena SchwartzNovember 26, 2018immigration, deportation, politics, resistance, cancer, death, dementia, grief, loveComment

Creativity is Messy: Questions to Explore When You’re Being Harsh with Yourself

Binary thinking doesn’t serve us. In this (or any) context, an all or nothing, either/or approach is not useful. As humans, we’re inevitably going to bring many thoughts and feelings to any table. The question, I suppose, is in how we can regard these — especially when there is inner turmoil or conflict — with some gentleness.

Creative ProcessJena SchwartzNovember 13, 2018rain, coffee, english bulldog, editing, screenwriting, coaching clients, writing, stories, author, activism, parentingComment

Grief Needs a Minute

Jena SchwartzOctober 28, 2018Comment

Abandoning the Quest for Balance

Community, Creative ProcessJena SchwartzOctober 24, 2018self-employment, working mom, motherhood, balance, Capricorn, Chani Nicholas, horoscoprComment

Real Talk Isn't Easy

Resistance, Jewish LifeJena SchwartzOctober 21, 2018Assata Shakur, desiree lynn adaway, The Hate U Give, social justice, synagogue, refugees, white supremacy, white privilegeComment

No More Crawling

Real LifeJena SchwartzOctober 17, 2018Ijeoma Umebinyou, Mary Oliver, wholeness, women's lives, devotionComment

Instead of Disappearing

These are just a few of the many reasons a “black out” to make a statement is so problematic….

ResistanceJena SchwartzSeptember 30, 2018women, feminism, humanity, resistance, politics, women's rights, rape, assault, misogyny, facebook, believe women, me too, #metoo, iceland, labor strikeComment

We Need to Take Care of Our Endings

They’d likely not vacation together again, for more reasons than the woman would get into now. Needless to say, a day was just right. They stopped for ice cream before returning home, letting the summer day run long. She remembered how she used to have such a hard time saying goodbye, letting go. She still did.

Now Is Not the Time to Shrink

ResistanceJena SchwartzJune 28, 2018Emily Dickinson, Langston Hughes, oppression, civil rights, civil liberties, human rightsComment

Thoughts About Class Privilege (from the McDonald’s Drive Thru)

It’s not pretty to look at the parts of ourselves that exemplify the things we say we’re against — entitlement, white privilege, intellectual snobbery. But to not look at these, to choose to stay cloistered, sheltered, more “successful” in ways society recognizes and values, and what we may have been taught would be “safer,” is inexcusable for anyone who claims to care about justice and humanity.

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