Dayna Del Val

Personal Systems Disruptor

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  • Daily Dose
  • Personal writing
  • Public speaking
  • Writing Retreat Reflections
  • Home
  • About
  • Contact me
  • Daily Dose
  • Personal writing
  • Public speaking
  • Writing Retreat Reflections
  • Dr. Marry and Me,  Parenting,  Personal Writing

    A potential shooter, curtains and my early morning habits disrupted

    January 23, 2021 / 2 Comments

    But as I reread the emergency alert, I wish for one half of one second that we had curtains. And I hesitate to even write that because Dr Marry will use that sentence against me for the rest of our lives together. But it's true.

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    Dayna Del Val

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    Keep your keys close

    July 5, 2020

    7-card stud, Texas hold ’em, 5-card draw…

    January 29, 2021

    Two Voices of Hope: The Beginning of Now (1b video)

    February 4, 2020
  • Parenting,  Personal Writing

    25 trips around the sun with my boy

    January 13, 2021 / 10 Comments

    Even in that moment, holding this tiniest, most perfect of little persons, my mom didn't say yes or no. It wasn't that all these people didn't have opinions, but every single one of them knew I was going to have to do this largely by myself; that answer had to come only from me. I looked down on little Quinn John, and I decided to be his mom.

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    Dayna Del Val

    You May Also Like

    In the face of history

    June 27, 2019

    My first mate on the journey

    October 19, 2019

    Sweet lemon aid

    May 1, 2020
  • Parenting,  Personal Writing

    A season to remember

    June 23, 2020 / 4 Comments

    My beloved boy is home for a week. I haven’t seen him since Christmas. That’s not that unusual, except that Covid-19 and the fact that he lives in Los Angeles has added an extra layer of stress to him being so far away. I was overjoyed to lay eyes on him when we picked him up from the airport last week, to be sure. Having him home got me thinking about a piece I wrote the spring he graduated from high school–a year I was sure would lead to me shriveling up and dying the day I dropped him off at college in the fall. Clearly, that didn’t happen. In…

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    Dayna Del Val

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    Leave the shore behind

    September 23, 2019

    In the face of history

    June 27, 2019

    A day of loss, LEGO and (the start of) love

    September 11, 2019
  • Parenting,  Personal Writing

    Until my throat is raw

    May 30, 2020 / 5 Comments

    I have lived an incredibly privileged life, and I have never felt physically threatened by people who are tasked with keeping me safe.

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    Dayna Del Val

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    A season to remember

    June 23, 2020

    Leave the shore behind

    September 23, 2019

    A day of loss, LEGO and (the start of) love

    September 11, 2019
  • Parenting,  Personal Writing

    Maybe math does have all the answers

    May 27, 2020 / 12 Comments

    What is much more interesting to me now is to consider who I am today because of that terrible night, exactly 25 years ago.

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    Dayna Del Val

    You May Also Like

    A potential shooter, curtains and my early morning habits disrupted

    January 23, 2021

    Sweet lemon aid

    May 1, 2020

    A day of loss, LEGO and (the start of) love

    September 11, 2019
  • Inspired Home Magazine,  Parenting,  Personal Writing

    Sweet lemon aid

    May 1, 2020 / 0 Comments

    This story originally appeared in the May/June 2020 issue of Inspired Home magazine. As you read this, we’re either still in or have just come out of an unprecedented global pandemic. Think about that for a minute. What other event in our planet’s entire history has literally brought the entire world together and absolutely isolated everyone simultaneously? Not every country fought in either of the World Wars and, while there have been other isolating pandemics, we didn’t have the benefit of technology to connect to people anywhere on the planet like we do today. So, what has happened because of this pandemic? There’s been a run on, of all things,…

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    Dayna Del Val

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    Taking tea and enjoying the journey

    June 13, 2020

    A Shift in Dreams

    June 20, 2019

    Take a running leap

    January 11, 2020
  • Parenting,  Personal Writing

    My first mate on the journey

    October 19, 2019 / 0 Comments

    Last night, Dr. Marry and I attended the Jeremiah Program gala, Journey for Hope. Jeremiah’s mission is the idea that you solve poverty and inequity two generations at a time by housing, educating and taking care of young single moms and their children. It’s a mission near to my heart because in so many ways, one of my dearest friends and I created that model for ourselves, a lifetime ago. Twenty two years ago, I was a 24-year old with a 21-month old. I was becoming good friends with a younger-than-me (technically I, but that sounds so pretentious!)-woman, Natalie. Natalie was pregnant and living at home. I had just moved…

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    Dayna Del Val

    You May Also Like

    Leave the shore behind

    September 23, 2019

    In the face of history

    June 27, 2019

    25 trips around the sun with my boy

    January 13, 2021
  • Parenting,  Personal Writing

    Leave the shore behind

    September 23, 2019 / 0 Comments

    I went back to school when my son was 20 months old. The night before I was scheduled to start, I went over to my mom and step dad’s house. I was in a blind panic about going back to school. I felt like Quinn was too young to go to daycare, and I was sure that I was going to be ruining his life if I did this. Plus, I was going back to get an education licensure, and I knew I didn’t want to teach. But as a young single mom, I felt like my options were limited. My step dad’s opinion always mattered to me because, while…

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    Dayna Del Val

    You May Also Like

    A potential shooter, curtains and my early morning habits disrupted

    January 23, 2021

    A day of loss, LEGO and (the start of) love

    September 11, 2019

    Until my throat is raw

    May 30, 2020
  • Dr. Marry and Me,  Parenting,  Personal Writing

    A day of loss, LEGO and (the start of) love

    September 11, 2019 / 1 Comment

    Tuesday, September 11, 2001, was one of those late summer days that help you endure the brutal, long winters we have in North Dakota. The sky was Robin’s egg blue, the glorious clouds were like cotton balls glued on to construction paper and the sun was shining, reaching every nook and cranny of our apartment. I had survived taking my son to his first day of Kindergarten. And now we were three or so weeks into the ritual of school mornings. Eighteen years ago, Quinn and I were getting ready to walk to school. We were switching back and forth between Dragon Tails and Good Morning America. I had it on GMA…

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    Dayna Del Val

    You May Also Like

    Two Voices of Hope: Hitting the First Bottom (3a)

    February 15, 2020

    Two Voices of Hope: Progress (6a)

    March 7, 2020

    Forming new habits to carry on

    May 13, 2020
  • Parenting,  Personal Writing

    In the face of history

    June 27, 2019 / 6 Comments

    I am completely overwhelmed by the situation at the border of this country. I know I’m not alone in this feeling, but I can’t shake that by doing nothing, I am complicit in the atrocity that is this piece of another chapter of our history in the making. It’s easy to look back at other times and faceless, nameless people and judge them for allowing slavery, the systemic slaughter of Native Americans, the jailing of women suffragists and civil rights activists, the extermination of Jews and others during WWII, the forced internment of Japanese and German Americans, the horrific abuse of GLBTQ people and more to happen on their watch.…

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    Dayna Del Val

    You May Also Like

    Sweet lemon aid

    May 1, 2020

    25 trips around the sun with my boy

    January 13, 2021

    A potential shooter, curtains and my early morning habits disrupted

    January 23, 2021
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