Gum on My Shoe

Check out our top blog posts for the past month. Posts are listed by the number of page views they attracted during the month, most popular first.

This is how change happens. One gesture. One person. One moment at a time. — Libba Bray I love to share content I find interesting and relevant. In a recent post about coffee shop conversations I mentioned two friends whose craft and creativity deserve a wider audience. I’ve previously shared ten content creators who make me happy . This time I’m sharing ten artists and creators who inspire, motivate, and challenge me in different ways. Their areas of interest and engagement vary widely. Topics include physical and mental health, suicide awareness, women’s autonomy, gender identity, trans rights, animal welfare, and body positivism. More than anything they explore and express what it means to be human. What it means to be unique. What it means to be alive. In no particular order they are: Marisa Ramirez Fraser Morgan Riona O Connor Mali and Joe Emily Kimelman Mark Hogben Man Who Has It All Rocky Kanaka Closer To Truth Andrea Gibson Marisa Ramirez (Kimmel) ...

If you’re a regular visitor to Gum on My Shoe you might notice things look rather different today. We’ve given our website a new look which we believe is fresh, clean, and easier to find your way around. We hope you agree. Rest assured, our mission, values, and goals haven’t changed. We’re still focused on sharing honest conversations about mental health and the power of supportive friendships. Those moments of showing up, listening, and reminding each other we’re not alone. What’s Changed? All our main pages have been reviewed and updated. The contact page has information for guest bloggers. Get in touch if you’d like to write for us. We’d love to hear from you. The old News and Appearances page has been renamed Portfolio to better reflect its contents. The old keyword cloud has been moved to a dedicated Topics section in the side menu. There’s a new disclaimer page. Where Is Everything? Top of the Page You’ll find links to the main pages (Home, About, Res...

TW: Mention of suicide and suicidality

When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive — to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love. — Marcus Aurelius, Meditations A few weeks ago I was on one of my regular video calls with Fran. It was seven o’clock in the morning for her. Midday for me, three thousand miles away on the opposite side of the Atlantic. Fran described her morning routine. Afterwards, I captured a few notes, knowing I’d want to explore the idea further. Blog post: How I Start My Day. Inspired by Fran describing her early morning activities. Her start is gentle, flowing, all quiet movement. Plumping her pillows and making her bed when she gets up. Putting her coffee machine on. Turning on her fairy lights. A twenty second pause as she turns on her artificial fish tank and watches their dance. Collecting her coffee. Moving to the couch for our first call of the day. Mine is nowhere near as relaxed or contemplative. I smile at that final line in my notes. I’d hesita...

By Aimee Wilson What we once enjoyed and deeply loved we can never lose, for all that we love deeply becomes a part of us. — Helen Keller Hello! I’m Aimee, fellow mental health blogger (at www.imnotdisordered.co.uk ). My guest post today, however, is to mark the official launch of my huge new project, Gracie’s Way. I decided to use this guest post to write about all the things — big, small, technical, emotional, and practical; EVERYTHING! — I’ve needed in the creation journey. Experience and Inspiration Of course, the most obviously helpful thing to have in creating this project, was the horrible experience of losing my youngest bunny, Gracie. For around two days I had noticed wet stools (a symptom of Gut Stasis which my first rabbit died from) but because I had two rabbits (Luna being the name of the eldest) I couldn’t tell who was doing it. So, it wasn’t until October 31 that Gracie finally started showing all the other symptoms of Gut Stasis. She stopped eating, she sta...