Tag: optimism

The Season of Harvest and Thanksgiving: Celebrating Gratitude and Growth

Written by Valerie Melroy on November 25, 2025.

showing sunflower with wheat - growth and joy

As I write my last blog as the Executive Director of Voice and Vision, I am overwhelmed with gratitude. Thirty years ago, we were a team of five part-time staff in a small office in Bucks County with two computers and three desks, while compiling CST (Consumer Satisfaction Team) data by hand. We were excited to be part of pioneering something in its infancy in Pennsylvania: people with mental health challenges interviewing people who had left state hospitals, and those living in the...

The “Choose to be Happy” List

Written by Kathryn Lerro on August 3, 2018.

Sometimes life takes you where you don’t want to go. Life brought me to Philadelphia—a place I never wanted to live again. I spent a few years here as a young adult, but never felt very happy here. I started college here, but lost my way and dropped out. I remembered this as a place where I worked dreary jobs, had a hard time making friends, and felt as though everyone around me was moving forward while I wasn’t. I guess you could say Philly made me feel like a failure. So why would I want to...

Temporarily Pink

Written by Kathryn Lerro on May 5, 2017.

Our old neighborhood sat at the base of a mountain in the Chugach foothills in Anchorage, Alaska. It was a beautiful place to live, with stunning views of mountains and sky and forest. The houses were a mix of one and two-story homes, most of which were painted or stained rich, natural colors. Although we did not have a homeowner’s association dictating these colors, some of our neighbors expressed strong opinions as to what hues were appropriately robust for dwellings in the “Last Frontier.”...

Silver Linings

Written by Kathryn Lerro on August 21, 2015.

A while back I began noticing an epidemic of bad posture—otherwise healthy people of all ages, their shoulders slumped forward, necks craned out in front, heads arriving everywhere a second ahead of the rest of their bodies. (Presumably a side effect of long hours spent hunched over computers and cell phones.) I found myself feeling sorry for these people and wondering if they knew what was happening to them. While shopping one day, I tried on an outfit in a dressing room that had large...

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