What I would have told myself about grief
I wonder what that earlier version of me would have thought of this. Would it have turned me away? Would it have grieved me too much to continue?
The Split Brain
It’s not art vs science. It’s not left brain vs right brain. We need to resist the us vs them that removes the creative spark from an image bearer of God.
We need to find our way forward to pursue both creativity and curiosity!
Don't Waste the Rest of 2022
We are about a third of the way through 2022.
How are you doing with those New Year's Resolutions?
Even if you aren't on track, there's still time to commit to good changes!
The Battle That Never Ends
Getting help is SO HARD.
I’ve heard people toss around “getting help,” “getting treatment,” “getting services,” “getting support…” as if these are accessible things for parents or struggling people. Here are some thoughts that myself and other advocates for people with special needs and/or mental health needs often think.
Being Enough
What do we do when everyone needs more of us than what we have to offer?
I ask myself this every single day.
The Mental Health Toolbox
I spent a lot of years struggling against seasons of anxiety and depression. Identifying this cycle in my life has helped things to feel less surprising and less out of control whenever my typical symptoms start to pop up. It has helped me realize I’m not alone. That struggling is not the same as failing.
The Art in Vulnerability
Something about moving so far from those creative circles and building an image of myself measured only by achievement, accomplishment, and notoriety, makes the prospect of sharing my art with a broader audience absolutely terrifying.
Starting the Year
It’s time to change the year when we write out dates! But more significantly, we see this time of year as a moment to look behind us and ahead of us. It's a time to reflect, refresh, and renew.
Don't Give the Poor Your Garbage
During the holiday season, we all feel compelled to be more generous, with both our time and our resources, but too often find ways to be generous that are not actually helpful.
Grace in a Covid Age
How can we work together while advocating for ourselves and the underserved? There's absolutely not an easy answer. Any easy answer would certainly look foolish next to the incredibly complex situations we often find ourselves in.
Merry Christmas, Whatever That Looks Like
All of us who are parents went into this imagining certain sweet holiday moments we would have with our little families. We had beautiful expectations, and we all know that our actual realities are often quite different! But special needs families often experience this gap between expectation and reality at a different level - not just the distance from what we expected to what we experienced; but the distance from what we expected to what we could even hope to say “yes” to.
Hopkins and the Fully Good News
It's not that the body is bad and the spirit is good. Instead, both are shadows of what is to come, one day to be brought forward and fully renewed in the coming age.
Family Outings
Can you imagine going into the grocery store, taking a stranger's kid by the hand, and then continuing on with your grocery shopping as if nothing had changed? It would be crazy, right?
The Current and Coming Kingdom
We get to be active in building, shaping, dreaming, and struggling to fashion and create a shadow of what is to come. Our involvement should make the approaching reality that much sweeter.
Why We Stopped Doing Foster Care and Started Homeschooling
Having to accept a journey that we didn’t choose has been a process. We loved our role as a foster family. I loved my own identity as a person who gets things done. This is not the story I expected our lives to tell. But it’s the life we have, and it is still good. I believe God will redeem it - is already redeeming it - to make it beautiful.
Kindness and Squeaky Wheels
We've all heard the phrase "the squeaky wheel gets the grease." But when it comes to our children, how do we do this well?
We Are Not In This Together
Instead of finding ways to support, love, and encourage one another, the fault lines in our culture have widened to an entirely new level.
A Time to Mourn
I think we need to find moments to laugh. But I also think we need to find times to mourn and to weep for what is lost and for what will never be.
Family Values in Light of COVID-19
We take a look at our family values and how we’re processing them within our home as we navigate the new waters of isolation and illness.