She’s Taking a Break is a cannabis romance. It’s the story of a sophisticated stoner who is the heroine of her story. In today’s blog I’m inviting you to join me on a heroine’s journey, because unlike a hero, heroines never journey alone.

There is power in the storytelling and there are so many more stories to share of the women building the cannabis industry, but I won’t be the one sharing them. I’m saying goodbye to The Canna Mom Show and want to thank you for coming along for the ride. I will continue advocating for cannabis normalization and helping women who use cannabis, as that is how we will crush the stigma and influence public policy as the laws continue to change. There is much work to be done and I will continue to do my part.

To celebrate our community,  The Canna Mom Show is partnering with the iconic My Bud Vase and Courage in Cannabis stories with a special giveaway of the Sapphire Blue Jewel water pipe featured in the Boston Magazine story The Really High Housewives of Metro West Boston and Volumes One and Two of Courage in Cannabis.

It wasn’t my intention to become a mom. I wasn’t one of those girls who played with baby dolls and dreamed of her future motherhood. A favorite childhood game I played with the neighborhood kids was office, and my role models were Mary Tyler Moore throwing her beret in the air, and Marlo Thomas as that girl living a single-lady life independently.

Today I’m sitting with Sunny, my seventeen-year-old pup, who is like the Edith Wharton quote – “My little dog – a heartbeat at my feet,”  a sentiment captured by a friend who came to the park one morning and photographed all the dogs and then created lovely cards with a special quote for each one.

The story of Sunny is one of good luck and great fortune because when she arrived in our home, when my son was nine and my daughter was seven, she had been found abandoned, abused and also pregnant, but was saved to give birth and find a new home.

What I’ve learned from both podcasting, cannabis and motherhood, is the importance of the pause.

Podcasting requires it; cannabis allows it; and motherhood is better when we stop and pay attention to the people we love.

I like being a small influencer who can support the amplification of the positive deviant, the canna moms breaking barriers, building businesses and crushing the stigma around cannabis and caregivers. It’s been a long journey matchmaking my skills, interests and abilities with a job that inspires me every day. Turns out I’m a pretty good podcaster because although I like talking with people, I prefer to listen. By listening I’m learning that there are many solutions to the problems we are facing, and talking with smart people on the podcast makes me hopeful.

Guest Blogger - Bertha Garratt

One of the best things about these products is their incredible anti-bacterial and anti-inflammatory properties. My skin feels softer and more supple since I started using them, and I have noticed a reduction in breakouts. Furthermore, it has reduced the itchiness I experience because of my skin condition.

There is definitely a movement of young people who can influence the future of cannabis in this country, but we, the canna moms, will be the ones to get the job done. Canna moms are gutsy and on the front lines in different spaces and when we find alignment we are a force to be reckoned with. We belong in every space and we bring our people with us, so today I’m asking for your help. With Season 4 launching on October 6th can you help us be heard so the world knows The Canna Mom Show is still sharing the stories of the women building this industry? Our actions together can help these important stories be heard.

As a young woman who lives between two states that didn’t skip a beat in criminalizing abortion, it makes me sad and scared, but it does not discourage me. In fact, it fuels the fight instilled in me by the women who came before me and who fought for me. It fuels me to fight for them.

Since the leak of the Supreme Court’s intention to abandon the bodily autonomy women have fought generations to attain, I’ve been living in a haze of red rage. It feels like we’re all a bit stunned by the expectation that having a vagina and uterus should determine a human’s destiny in 2022.

If you care about these stories and hope to create a future improved by the women in cannabis then I’m asking for your support of the Keep The Canna Mom Conversation Going campaign. And with gratitude I thank you for choosing to join us in creating Season 4, so that together we can elevate the stories of the women building the emerging cannabis industry and crush the stigma around cannabis and caregivers.

That is why I am overjoyed to announce The Canna Mom Show is planning a Season 4! And we are asking our community for help. If you want to hear cannabis stories from the secular to the sacred on how it heals, enhances and elevates the lives of moms from coast to coast and around the world, you can. On May 1st we are launching our first Keep The Canna Mom Conversation Going Crowdfunding Campaign where your financial gift will be rewarded with some great canna mom swag or a signed copy of the #1 Best Selling Courage in Cannabis or other canna experiences you are going to love. I hope you will join us so that together we can continue building this new world for mothers and cannabis and crush the stigma around cannabis and caregiving.

There are times for persistence and I feel like this past year has tested this in all of us. But there are also times for resets to renew our purpose and build our reserve. The Canna Mom Show is taking a summer break because I need a reset. But I’ll still be talking about cannabis this summer with my friends Dori Wile of Half Baked Housewives and CBD educator Amy Chin, together we will be three canna moms illuminating the way on Clubhouse in the Reset for Women club. We will be talking about how to choose the best CBD products; why cannabis is good for moms; how to use cannabis during menopause and so much more.

Staying youthful is an endeavor for the ages, but it doesn’t need to be. That’s because attributes associated with youth are tied to sleep. If you sleep well, you’ll feel and look better—no matter your age.

Just pause and think about it. A newborn doesn’t sleep through the night and neither do you. How do you look and feel after a few days? You can’t sleep, worrying about balancing the demands of work and your kid being left out of playdates. As your child moves from one phase to the next, the stress of parenting doesn’t decrease (think mean girls, bullies and the college application process­) but we adapt. It starts to feel normal but shouldn’t.

Now, either my mom listened to mine incessantly or more likely the latter which was – I shared the shit out of my aired interview on The Canna Mom Show because I NEEDED to win the grand prize. A homemade, colourful, one of a kind, Bong Quilt. Yes, a Bong for Mom contest was well underway with the winner to be announced on Mothers Day. This of course, a nail-biting announcement that I watched glued to FB live while Joyce delivered the winning news to all of the participating guests. It was a close race and I don’t recall the final numbers because I heard one thing only which was, that Bong for Mom Quilt was about to travel outside of the Country to its new home, with me!

Social media is not a place I like to spend my time. In all honestly, too much time on it makes me feel nauseous. And I hate to admit that, despite my wisdom and age, if I don’t get enough likes I feel badly. Crushing one’s self-esteem feels like an unnecessary trade-off to find community in the virtual world during a pandemic. But how are we supposed to connect to real people when we can’t leave our house?

We can listen. That is the genius of Clubhouse – and my new afternoon obsession.

It’s often said that the future is female and with the way we started 2021, it’s safe to say that might just be true. From the first female Vice President in United States history taking office to leading the race in developing a COVID-19 vaccine, women are making their mark. But what does that mean for the cannabis industry?

I watch the butter-yellow sun descend behind the shadowed houses against the pastel sky. I sit and think about the chaos and disruption brought to us in 2020. The waving branches block the light partially, momentarily creating an eerie sense of the light being gone. I strain to see the last glowing beam, alit in the sky like the flickering hemp wick held above the bong I’m about to smoke. It’s late afternoon as the dark descends, but I’m calm and listening to the world outside my office window. A cold breeze startles me from my dreamy thoughts and I shudder. I’m a dreamer and the world needs dreams in the darkness, but dreaming doesn’t pay the bills.

What do you see when you close your eyes? Lately, I see colors in clouds that seem to represent my emotions. Reds and oranges on my sad angry days and blues with swirling grays when life feels too hard. I used to think only in words. I’m a writer and a podcaster, words are important to me.

In 2013 I ran for a local political position with the campaign promise to serve my community by focusing my energies on art, academics and family engagement in our public schools. I lost. But after this year’s tumultuous and historic American election season I began thinking what my political priorities would be today. Cannabis, of course, because as a freedom loving American I don’t believe the government has (or had) the right to criminalize a plant. That alone would make my candidacy unique.

The idea that only the biggest will survive in this industry - depriving the middle of the generational wealth this industry should produce - must be fought. I refuse the see the world through the eyes of those people who believe they are the best, and ask that we are allowed to use our imaginations to create a different type of business created by and for women where we have a place and don’t have to twist ourselves to fit a view of who we should be and how things should be done.

I’m a person who likes listening to the world and for many years I was ashamed of my preference for silence and invisibility. Turns out, invisibility is my superpower. I’m a person of faith but I wouldn’t say I’m a believer. But I am passionate about the need for all of us to be members of communities bound by love, and believe that if we are ever going to stop judging each other we must learn to be silent and listen.

It’s surprising what a girl can do with a some confidence, a good education and bottomless persistence. I’ve tried many different ways to optimize my time and talents since becoming a mother, sadly most didn’t really work out. There was even a time that I wanted to be a politician, it’s true. I ran old-fashioned campaigns, full of door knocking, face-to-face communication and personal connections. But after losing – twice - I walked away from the political game with some hard earned wisdom and a great cocktail-party story about my eleven-year old campaign manager, Zev.

There are days when I feel the need to escape the world I created. My home and family, the place and people who would not exist without me, had me hiding in the bathroom these past few months just for some quality “alone” time. I love the people who I’ve been locked down with since March, and I love my house almost as much. But there are days when a person needs time by herself.

This past year I spent my time meeting, interviewing and sharing the stories of the women working in the emerging cannabis industry who stopped following the rules around cannabis a long time ago, and are now an army transforming the world. They are leaders of this new industry who are setting the standards and crushing the misbegotten ideas around cannabis that are hurting all of us. They are mothers and caregivers and humans who have reinvented themselves by caring for others.

When the 2016 election results were announced I remember telling a friend that it felt like 1938 Germany. As an American Jew to remember this time in history is personal. Jews understand the lessons of history. It’s ingrained in us through years of Hebrew School and family dinners. No one ever lets us forget. And right now, it feels that American humanity is falling prey to ancient patterns of phobia, isolation and persecution. But I’m hopeful that we can break the cycle this time.

“This idea is tied to Buddhist theme of mindfulness—the practiced ability to live in the present. The life cycle of these flowers make us question why we fail to live life to the fullest, why we don’t spend time with our loved ones, and why we do not take the time to simply pay attention to the living, breathing world around us. Cherry blossom festivals are a time to regain our perspective on life, and to make a promise not to take the good things in our lives for granted.”

The Symbolism of the Cherry Blossom.

The blossoming cherry trees and the bells of North Cambridge soothe my feelings of anxiety during the late afternoons of my physical isolation. It makes me so happy that Spring is finally here, and that my very favorite month, May, can be enjoyed from my office window.

On the rare occasions that I leave my house these days I’ve developed a new habit before opening the front door. I close my eyes, inhale deep, and breathe. Then I put on the pink-gloves that were given to me by my recently deceased mother-in-law, leave the house my deceased father helped me purchase, and think about all the foundations of love that support me. Then I walk out, alone in the world with the belief that because I’ve been loved and am loved, I am never really alone.

I’ve been thinking about the ways we’re tearing each other apart, and how I can do something to stop it. Our world feels broken and fraying at the seams but I don’t have the stature to change much. My life’s small and traditional, I’m a stay-at-home mom who listens to show tunes and likes quilting. But I do have this podcast so my voice has a space where I can explain how this old- fashioned thing that I do, quilting, holds the answers to some of life’s biggest questions.