Tara Slaughter Szkutnik @ess_laughter

author, editor, survivor, sometimes astrologer, always a wife and mother, and legal guardian and advocate for my institutionalized autistic and bipolar brother. Joined February 2025

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Tara Slaughter Szkutnik @ess_laughter

a month ago

chng.it/jxP8XgfKYr Hey @JBPritzker, my autistic brother would rather go on a nature walk than pace the halls. Everyone deserves room to breathe, right? Find your surplus elsewhere and stay off Shapiro Developmental Center’s lawn!

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Tara Slaughter Szkutnik @ess_laughter

3 months ago

“Full Moon in Detriment” (2025) #astrology #poetry

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Tara Slaughter Szkutnik @ess_laughter

4 months ago

I just want to work on something to death (or its life?) a little bit more. #editor #bookediting

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Tara Slaughter Szkutnik @ess_laughter

5 months ago

It begs the question: Is interest in astrology synonymous with #anxiety and other psychological hiccups? Perhaps when we're not seeking, but rather content in the present moment, there is no need to question if and when the other shoe will drop, let alone rationalize our peace.

Tara Slaughter Szkutnik @ess_laughter

5 months ago

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Tara Slaughter Szkutnik @ess_laughter

5 months ago

Was my unmedicated PTSD self the natural me, or is my medicated PTSD self the real me? With pharmaceutical calming, things I've always desired are coming to me: inner peace, stability, and predictability. Yet some surprising interests are falling to the wayside-namely, #astrology

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Tara Slaughter Szkutnik @ess_laughter

5 months ago

#Cat, meet #Caterpillar.

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Tara Slaughter Szkutnik @ess_laughter

5 months ago

Dental hygiene can be lost on those with #autism (even those higher on the spectrum, in my brother’s case). Suffice to say it’s not really worth it, when weighing costs and benefits of increased risk of tooth decay versus increased risk of I/DDs. #MAHA researchgate.net/publication/39…

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Tara Slaughter Szkutnik @ess_laughter

5 months ago

My therapist says nobody is vying for my 8 a.m. slot. I should psychoanalyze this... #PTSD #mentalhealth #therapy

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Tara Slaughter Szkutnik @ess_laughter

5 months ago

Coming across #Christian poetry my #toxic mother wrote before I was born is the ultimate mindf**k. In our time together, she never revealed to me any religiosity, let alone poetic inclinations.

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Tara Slaughter Szkutnik @ess_laughter

5 months ago

When you're on your second round of edits, do you ever feel like you're an idiot for missing edits the first time around? #askingforafriend, I mean #editor, *ahem* me

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Tara Slaughter Szkutnik @ess_laughter

5 months ago

My subconscious is longing for my hometown, as shown to me in a series of nightmares this week. What a wonderful #awakening it is to not be there, but in my chosen home among my chosen family instead.

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Tara Slaughter Szkutnik @ess_laughter

5 months ago

This is the first time I've edited a book beyond copyediting and proofreading. To be past the first draft and deep into the final version, I can't wait for it to be published this year! #booklover #editor

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Tara Slaughter Szkutnik @ess_laughter

5 months ago

Somehow, my husband telling me that we've all got something is satisfying my #anxiety as a #mom to kids with chronic #health concerns.

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Tara Slaughter Szkutnik @ess_laughter

5 months ago

Specifically, I joined the Friends of Shapiro, a #nonprofit that supports and advances the lives of the moderately to severely #disabled living at the Shapiro Developmental Center in Illinois through fundraising, activism, and more.

Tara Slaughter Szkutnik @ess_laughter

5 months ago

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Tara Slaughter Szkutnik @ess_laughter

5 months ago

Feeling reinvigorated by the call to serve that was this partial solar eclipse in Aries in my eleventh house of social causes. #illinois #disability #activism

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Tara Slaughter Szkutnik @ess_laughter

5 months ago

As my progressed Moon came to the end of Libra, I no longer craved friends, but rather wanted to be alone with my books on my favorite chair. Now that my prMoon resides in Scorpio, I want privacy to solve the mysteries of my psyche. (Astrological knowledge is #power.)

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Tara Slaughter Szkutnik @ess_laughter

5 months ago

My 4yo “training” our dogs: “OK, I want you to lay down, stand up, or sit.” #dogmom

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Tara Slaughter Szkutnik @ess_laughter

5 months ago

Ignore your yard for a few years and see what grows. #blackthumb #gardening

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Tara Slaughter Szkutnik @ess_laughter

5 months ago

I'm an editor and I swear I'll still never get me, myself, and I right... which is probably a metaphor for my life in general: A work-in-progress. . . . #writer #author #editor #poet

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Tara Slaughter Szkutnik @ess_laughter

6 months ago

When you push for a plein air / poetry collab with your oil painter father-in-law, only for him to offer you the supplies to paint beside him on an upcoming family vacation. Sold! (I'll write about it later.)