What Is Ripe Time?:
Ripe Time is a trauma-informed bi-weeklyish newsletter. I generally write creative non-fiction and most of what I share here has a connection to impact of inter-personal trauma. I also include "What I’m Reading”, as a way to encourage reading and book discussion and “Recommended Links”, what I’m loving/find useful. Early (EST) every fifth day of the week, I offer the #FridayQuestion: a thread with a big open-ended, anyone-can-chime-in query. Readers tell me they’re fun and thought-provoking even if they don’t comment.
Someone I admire once said to me,
“You are really good, Elizabeth, at distilling complex ideas down, making them practical and engaging with people around those ideas.”
That’s the perfect way to talk about what I’m trying to do here.
Why “Ripe Time”?
Post Covid, we’re having to navigate the gap between what our life is and what we want it to be. That space can feel like a chasm.
I believe part of the solution is finding, cultivating and intentionally maintaining relationships that matter. (There is also a large part of the answer involves systemic changes in our society like mandatory parental leave, closing the pay gap, dismantling all the -isms, etc.) We also need to talk more about the impact that abuse has on us, understand why it does change us and what we can do to feel better. But there are things that we can do now to feel more connected to the life we want. These conversations begin in community and with others.
The time is ripe.
Since 2002, I’ve been blogging (you can see some of that here) and sending newsletters, first with Emma( 2004-2008ish) and then MailChimp. I left Mailchimp in 2019 and stopped blogging. I joined Substack to combine both endeavors.
Who I am:
A child of the 80’s, I spent a lot of time watching TV with little parental supervision.
One of my favorite shows was Dallas. JR Ewing seemed to have it all and since my mother told me that I could be anything I wanted to be, I decided that I wanted to be rich enough to have a driver. Who knew at the time that upwards of 60% of wealth in the United States is inherited?! That plan fizzled fast. Instead of becoming a titan of industry, I graduated from college with useless but cocktail party amusing degrees and went into hospitality. Then, I entered corporate America. Briefly. Then started my own business as a life coach, trained through Co-Active Training Institute. Then, grad school and into the nonprofit world. At first glance, it seems a disparate work history (from assistant to the CEO to Crisis Line Coordinator) but the through-line is service, community and writing.
Blogging since 2002, I started leading groups (support groups, community groups, consciousness raising groups, workshops) in 2003. I have worked with inter-personal trauma survivors for 15 years, first as a volunteer on an overnight hotline. As paid staff, I’ve trained hundreds of community professionals on abuse dynamics and active listening. You can purchase my ebook Relationship Red Flags: The Ten Secrets You Need to Know here.
I’ve also offered trauma-informed continuing ed trainings on the long-term affects of sexual abuse on reproductive and sexual health to clients like NC AHECs, Duke University School of Medicine, Lamaze and others. You can purchase those trainings here.
Most recently in the early days of Covid, I co-hosted a time-limited podcast with my friend Larissa Parson called Wondermine. You can find that archive here.
From July 2024-July 2025, my family and I will be in Berlin Germany for a year. But usually, I live on the unceded lands of the Shaktori and Lumbee tribes, otherwise known as Durham, North Carolina with my husband, daughter and a rescue dog named Nestor. You can also find me at LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook.
I’m so glad you’re here. <3
