Dear Together Friends, Fans, and Family,
Oh my goodness, The Together Community had THINGS TO SAY about hobbies when we included it in the PS of last month’s newsletter. People sent me photos of their calligraphy, tennis clinics, crossword puzzles, and more. I loved it! Stay tuned for a Quadruple Together Tour later this month about how to make time for hobbies. Bottom line: it is not easy, but people are pulling it off! And here is me with my low key Together Triathlete hobby completing my 16th triathlon on Mother’s Day. Don’t get too excited – I’m a completer, not a competer – though I do like to sprint ahead on the final .25 mile of the run and this time I burned past four people.
A triathlon is exactly the way I wanted to spend my Mother’s Day this year.
Anyway, it’s June. I’m deep in our Summer 2026 Together Tour (12 cities in 12 weeks or so!), and I’m trying to be a more Together Packer. Around here, we are deeply divided between Team Unpack-the-Minute-You-Walk-in-the-Door (Ana & Lauren) and Team Unpack-Just-In-Time-To-Pack-For-Your-Next-Trip (Maia). Which team are you on?
A lot of my past four weeks has been dominated by Kid 4 getting a concussion during a scuffle (all legal) in front of the goal at a Saturday night soccer game deep in rural Maryland. He described it as a “karate kick to the head,” and at first I wasn’t sure what happened, but once I realized my little (big, he is now almost 4 inches taller than me!) guy was down, I sprinted over to the goal and literally jumped over a fence in front of an entire set of parents. Minus the split lip, bruised face, and concussion, he is recovering well and he should be fine (though he missed over a week of school, bless his 7th grade teachers), but the whole experience got me thinking about moments when time just STOPS. Like, every single thing clears out of your brain except what is right in front of you. These moments are not always emergencies. In fact, they can be positive as well. Here are a few of those moments for me over the past months:
- Your kid gets a concussion and a bloody face. See above. Every single action was related to next steps for him, including finding an urgent care close by, communicating with his coaches and his dad, driving 90 minutes back to the DC area, messaging the school, and scheduling follow-up appointments. Also, he asked for Chipotle to be delivered to urgent care (there was a two hour wait), so he seemed to be on the mend pretty quickly!
- Your College Bestie is two miles away. When Find My told me that my bestest college friend (hi Anne L!) was 2 miles away from me in Miami on Spring Break, I literally stopped everything the kids and I were doing, called her three times, and within 2 hours, we met up with all of our kids and Anne’s dad (hi Ming!). Also, if you don’t share your location with your best friends, how are you even living your life?
When you realize you’re only miles away from your college BFF, you make a meet up happen!
- Your husband is in a fender bender that totals the car. When Dr. Together had a car accident on the Beltway due to someone stopping dead in front of him (he was fine, but our Camry was totaled), I literally drove in my SWIMSUIT (I was on my way to my Sunday night clinic) to pick him up on the side of the road. Sidenote: he could have ridden in the tow truck, but I felt like a personal highway pick up was warranted.
- A last-minute medical specialist appointment opens! When a doctor called to tell me that there was a last-minute opening for an appointment I had been waiting for (I had an odd set of health issues in March), I figured out how to clear my calendar to get in to see the specialist.
I guess the theme here is sometimes time feels like it stops on a dime, you go into tunnel vision mode, and the Calendar Clouds (I just made that up) seem to part. It helps me to name when this is happening and my brain is whispering or shouting, “Clear the Calendar, Clear the Calendar, CLEAR THE CALENDAR!”
Sometimes life just makes priorities super obvious, and the calendar clears itself. (With a To-Do list following right behind to communicate, delegate, and delay, OBVIOUSLY). We suddenly know what matters most, as emergencies and opportunities offer a strange clarity. Have you had these Calendar Clearance moments?
Also, maybe remind me not to raise a goalkeeper next time. It’s stressful out here.
#togetherforever #clipboardsandclogs
Maia
PS In almost 20 Years of Togetherness, I thought I had seen EVERYTHING. Turns out, I can still be surprised, and walking into a room with 88 people wearing The Together Leader t-shirts knocked my socks right off. Newark Board of Education, thank you for the joy!
PPS My friend and fellow educator Dr. Erica Jordan-Thomas – also known as Dr. EJT – has a brand-new book coming out on June 16 called 7-Figure Educator. Get your copy now!
- Do the kids in your life know cursive? Do YOU know cursive? I admit, I’m a fan, and when one of my kids didn’t have a signature to authorize her very first paycheck, I was like, we gotta fix this! At one point cursive was an elementary school mainstay, but many schools have phased it out. Now some students are joining cursive clubs (gift link) to prevent it from becoming a lost art. I mean, I love calligraphy too!
- I told you multi-tasking was not possible! This article (gift link) was one of the best reads of the last five years in the Together-verse. My favorite part was the description of Maya Angelou using her “big mind” for book writing, and her “little mind” for crossword puzzle breaks. And, maybe more than anything I’ve read to date, this article named that environment plays a big role in creative work. I mean, Maya Angelou would rent hotel rooms to focus on writing and remove the artwork from the walls to avoid distraction. While we cannot all do that, we can take steps to make our physical space more conducive to focus and creativity.
- Don’t make the robot do it…at least not all the time. This piece was written by a dear high school friend of mine who has spent his career in software and tech. I loved Alan’s real-life example of, sure, I could have AI write my weekly summary, but, “Is the value in the output – or the act of producing it?” True food for thought in the world of artificial intelligence, and I appreciate the real life example.
