Children
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My Story Isn’t Your Story, Your Story Isn’t Mine
“Before the IDEA, children like my son were stigmatized, stereotyped, and institutionalized.” Senator Maggie Hassan Oh what deep grief, abundance of lessons, and remarkable joys come with pain and struggle. What is life if we cannot allow our story to become part of the greater story of helping each other place one foot in front of the other? Senator Hassan has passion, conviction, and pain- if you have been in the special education ebbs and flows of the past 40-50 years, like my family has, you find yourself talking to the tv, shouting “Amen! Preach it!” I am not bringing this to your attention today for any political reasons. To…
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Tiny, but Mighty Voices
If you’re feeling blue – try painting yourself a different color. – Hannah Cheatem, Age 8 Recently, I was at the dentist, and I heard this little tiny voice coming down the hallway. The hygienist that was cleaning my teeth, obviously, couldn’t ignore my giggle, and said, “I just love little voices.” In that instant we were connected at the heart. I asked her if she had any little ones, to which she pointed at a picture of a little girl, and said, “yes, she is still very little and just babbles for now, but I can’t wait to hear what her voice will really sound like.” I love it…
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Generation to Generation
When a generation tolerates a sin, the next will celebrate it, and the generation after them won’t even know it is a sin. Unknown I have been sitting with this quote for a few weeks now. So I invite you to sit with it for a little bit before continuing… Every generation is marked with their “successes” and “failures.” Every generation is labeled these days and tagged with the “tech inventions” of the day. And I am not saying this is all bad, but hear me out, because it does become nauseating at some point. I am a Millennial/Gen Y, born between 1980-1996. My generation is tagged as the Information…
- "Life" Books, Children, Family, Friends & Neighbors, GRANDparents, Let's be Real, Mommy, My Little, Pass it On...
Be Human. Be Real.
Babies. I know not everyone shares my overjoy and love of the tiniest humans among us, but allow me to share some perspective from what makes my heart come alive. First, my Lucy would have been eight this year, so I would still be in the midst of raising my girl and loving to learn about whatever she was loving at the moment. But she is with Jesus and He still has me on this side of Heaven, so he has more work to be done in me, for sure! In the past few years I have been able to watch quite a few of the children I kept get…
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Speaking From Experience …
Laughter. Tears. Speechless. Frozen. Numb. Want to Scream. Want to hide. This week my life experiences have felt like a mess, a wreck of emotions, or is it that my experiences make me pay attention? I believe it’s all the above 😊 It’s all happening at once. I know ya’ll just love when I write about vaccines, but the so called “recommendations” coming out of the CDC this week, are something I have experienced before vaccines were available for two of these viruses and I will not stay silent. When children are literally dying from diseases that have been almost non-existent and hardly ever fatal, because of “grown-ups” not getting…
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Blanket Drop
I can’t believe I have watched the Charlie Brown Christmas and have never noticed this before. You may have already heard what seems to be going viral on social media or maybe you noticed it before it was even mentioned by anyone. Linus drops his beloved blanket as soon as he says the words, “fear not…” Now, me and Linus are connected souls, because blankets are always with me, and certain ones for certain times. I hold them, wrap up in them, carry them. So this is why I am surprised that I haven’t noticed that he completely lets go of his beloved blue blanket. But what a symbol and…
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“Hope is My Favorite Thing to Have”
Let me pause before I start todays post… I must say my heart is deeply grieved for the many who have had their lives completely shattered- by violence, by policy, by “well-educated” people who have no clue what their “self-educated” counterparts are going through, by unacceptable and nasty comments and remarks. The cruelty is at a level that is beyond I could have ever imagined, and I don’t know where or when it will hit the peak for enough of us to shout STOP! So until then, I am just letting you know if you are out there thinking, “am I the only one yelling at the tv?” Let me…
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Volume Up!
There are so many reasons this videos is on my phone all the time. 1. My niece is adorable. She now has much more hair than her adorable blonde strands of hair in this video. Her blue eyes have not changed, they still take my breath away, as someone once told her, “I can see the ocean in your eyes.” And of course, she still can give us this “sneaky” look/laugh once in a while. 😉 2. You can hear my mom, my Paw-Paw, and I laughing. The best laugh in the background is my Paw-Paw’s. Of course none of us knew at the time what the months ahead held,…
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Family Moments
“Family moments are the best souvenirs.” Moments. Maybe a split second decision. A window of time that surprised you, and allowed you to spend time with family. A car ride conversation. A road trip. A stay-cation. It’s the moments within in these times that we remember, that children remember. There is a five year gap between my brother and I, which to some seems like a lot, but honestly, I love it and always have. It’s one of those things, as a kid, you didn’t really think about unless somebody pointed it out. We have always been best friends, partners in sneakiness, and have always loved family. Family trips and…
- "Life" Books, Children, Children Come, Consider This..., Family, Friends & Neighbors, GRANDparents, Grief, Let's be Real, My Little, Pass it On...
Children Grieve Too
“There’s a stillness about grief. A process. An overwhelming hush. Some days it screams about the one I miss. Some days it’s a peace that there is more. Some days it’s a silent mending as tiny broken pieces are put back together. In any form, I don’t mind the quiet — it’s a sign of an endless love, a richness, an undying hope. I’m learning that the quiet is part of the sacred mess of grief, of aching, of mending, of becoming whole when part of you is gone. It’s sacred and holy, and because of that it makes me feel just an inch closer to him. I don’t want…
