Joséphine Mwanvua on the difficulty of asking for help as a person of color: “Here, in the West, black communities and other POC communities still carry a taboo around mental health issues.”

Angela Noel on co-parenting and experiencing loss as a part-time mom: “Sucked into this hole are the smiles I won’t see. The giggles I miss. . . . These all live in the hole in my body, the blackhole place where he lives a life outside of the life he shares with me.”

Blogger Ann is especially grateful to have one more Christmas with her beloved dog, Lucy. “And the fact that Lucy will get at least one more chance to find the special present that Santa Dog left under the tree will just make this Christmas that much sweeter.”

Western philosophy clashes with Rebecca Schuman’s birth plan in her hilarious, harrowing Longreads essay.

Veteran blogger Angela has been writing Fluid Pudding since 2001. The warm, witty voice that has kept fans reading for almost 17 years is in full effect in this ode to her recently-demolished childhood home.

As Leslie Kendall Dye suggests, pain is indeed inherited, but treating it as an affliction need not be handed down from generation to generation.

“I couldn’t cry during the flood, but I did beg. Please God, just don’t let my kids lose their home. Because I know what it’s like to not be able to go home.” Anna left her home in the Soviet Union at age 7; her daughter Alma fled Harvey’s floodwaters at the same age.

“The world is burning yet the sun still shines.” As Northern Califonia burns, Lisa depends on hope, family, and small moments of beauty to work through each day’s new series of disasters.

Like father, like son: Rob Moses’ love of photography has taken root in his son, Cameron, age six.

As Codi Darnell relates, when you’re confined to a wheelchair after a spinal cord injury, sometimes it’s others’ prejudices and preconceived notions that present the greatest challenge.

Photographer Ben Whitmore’s photo essay gives you a rare, behind-the-scenes look at Webers Circus, a family-run circus that travels around Australia for 10 months of the year.

“A lot can change in the course of one phone call.” At Commode to Joy, Jamie Muscato writes about her father’s death, her strong bond with her brother Troy, and the call that changed everything seven years ago.

“So for those who knew, it must have been very strange that we have dead bones in our closet.” The Caspers are an American expat family in Cairo, Egypt. Jayson Casper tells the story of Max, the skeleton they’ve lived with, and explores a different view of death in Middle East culture.

Ms. Z sits in the waiting room at a Homeland Security office while her husband, who came to the US 15 years ago, has an interview — a fraught event at any time, but especially in the current political climate.

Lori Duron’s 10-year-old gender creative son: “I’m a boy who likes girl stuff. I don’t even like calling it girl stuff and boy stuff. There shouldn’t be girl stuff and boy stuff; it’s all just stuff.”