The autopilot in us keeps us so far from making choices that our lives go by like getting to work — can’t even remember how we got there. I tell myself that if life wasn’t so full and whirling I’d be more of a participant instead of bystanding But getting in “the flow” isn’t singular and it isn’t the same for each of us. While I suspect that lots of us […]
Lots of us with disabilities, hidden or not, feel as if we’re a burden. Needing assistance with basic tasks, like getting from one place to the other, feels like a loss of independence. Depending on our experience with that quality, a loss like that can be emotionally upsetting. Thus, we want and need to believe that relationships are unaffected. In the story of the Emperor’s New Clothes, swindlers were able […]
But you look so good. It’s a phrase that follows anyone with a sadness or illness, follows them like a hornet homing in on a sweet target. Having that phrase as a rallying cry for any special interest group misses a larger point: no one likes to look like shit, much less be told so. I’ve worked with plenty of people over the last 16 years and it is not […]
A couple of weeks ago I introduced Rachelle Friedman to those of you who don’t know her. If you recall, she became wheelchair-bound due to a freak accident at her bachelorette party. I promised to tell you more… Not to be cheesy, but Rachelle and her husband, Chris, are nothing short of inspiring. They never chose to be in the spotlight, but they are. Their lives together have a […]
Photograph of Rachel and her husband Chris on their wedding day. Photo credit: Martha Manning Photography I blog for the government’s disability website, Disability.gov If you haven’t visited, do so; it’s cool, comfy, and inspiring. At a recent look-see, I plopped into a story about Rachelle Friedman, written by the person who knows her best — herself. You might remember her story. Last year, at Rachelle’s bachelorette party, a friend’s playful gesture […]
While apartheid has been legally abandoned in South Africa, it can still be a racially uneasy place. But some questions cut across racial lines: Is Oscar Pistorius guilty of murder? It was a made-for-television story starring Oscar Pistorius, a double amputee running on bladed “legs” in last summer’s Olympic Games, and his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp, a beautiful model. Life in a luxurious gated community. Fame, wanted or not, right up […]
We believe in love, we just don’t practice it. Maybe because we think love has no limits, no boundaries, that all is fair. Love conquers all and love never ends. Besides time, love is the greatest healer. And along with diamonds, love is forever. If that’s true, what about the chart-topping occurrence of divorce? It’s said that love never fails, but it does. As for remarriage, those vows would have to be […]
In a New York Times op ed piece, a psychologist decried (for many reasons not relevant here) a website offering consumers the opportunity to rate their mental healthcare providers. Either it’s a lousy psychologist afraid of being outed, or one who hasn’t joined the digital age. Woefully under-prepared for the speed at which cybertechnology change happens, many providers of mental health and the agencies that oversee them are dancing as fast as they can. […]
Originally posted on My Mending Wall:
So many times I have written about the wrongs that have been done to me by the hand or words of someone else. The pain cuts like the bitter cold wind on a blustery day until I feel it piercing through my skin to my very core. Sometimes I cannot let it go for it swirls around and around in my head until I…
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