Hope Sophie is healing nicely and enjoying making crafts. My grown-up daughter and I love crafting together.

I don't know why Medium deals with blocking and muting the way they do. What you describe as a better way seems sensible.

When I was a little girl my best friend was a boy who

was gentle and sensitive. We had a neighborhood bully. I lived in a home with many older brothers and knew how to use my words to go after the bully when he was awful to my friend. Most of the time my words meant nothing to the bully. The bully just kept going and going and going.

He beat my friend to a pulp one day and after then

I stepped up my game. I spent a lot of time and energy illustrating to him that he wasn't much at all.

It ended with him punching me in the solar plexus and knocking the air out of me. He knew he'd crossed a line in hitting a younger girl and injuring me. I made horrible sounds as I tried to breathe and it scared the shit out of him.

For a while, he backed off of the bullying but soon was right back onto messing with my friend's peace of mind.

I've sort of devoted my adult life to writing about bullying in many of my works of fiction. I've used my words to respond to people here on Medium who bully. They are all such cowards. They are broken souls/ why else would someone go out of their way to leave shitty, unfeeling, mean-spirited comments.

It's never funny. It's just gross.

So, my lovely, there are folks here, plenty of folks, who have your back. We all join hands and see the absolute beauty found in supporting one another. And the bullies die sad and miserable.

The tree garland is adorable! Merry Christmas my friend.