Category: Speaking Out Loud
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Faces Behind the Statistics – World Mental Health Day 2019
Worldwide more than 300 million people of all ages live with depression. My 13year old son is one of those people, but he’s not a statistic and he’s not defined by his diagnosis. See the faces and know the stories behind the statistics. #WorldMentalHealthDay is a reminder that there are real people behind the statistics.…
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Pardon My Language
A few days back I had an epiphany of sorts…. You guys – it’s flat out brutal around here. The man child is an absolute wreck. The girl child is alternately hiding from the chaos in the house and inserting herself right into the middle. My husband has traveled for work more in the past…
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A Moment of Truth
A moment of truth. Parenting a teen with mental health challenges is exhausting and often isolating. And right now I am more tired than I ever even knew was possible. So a word of thanks for those who “hold my umbrella” for me when I need to rest my weary heart, body and mind. I…
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Holding Space in a Season of Holy Saturdays
Holy Saturday 2019 In the Christian tradition, Holy Saturday is the space between the pain of Jesus being nailed to the cross and the joy that will come with resurrection on Easter. On Holy Saturday we acknowledge that we don’t always know what hope will look like tomorrow. We hold space and we wait. In…
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Me & My Shadow 2.0
Both of my kids are in a youth theater production of Peter Pan this week. Being a devoted mom, sucker, I volunteered to help as an usher at two days of preview shows for local schools and then sat in the audience on opening night. It was a ton of Neverland in a small window of time!…
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Beyond the Label
What I know to be true is that my son wants to be fully and genuinely seen and accepted for who he is – and ASD is a piece of what makes him whole. So for him, and for every other child and adult on the spectrum (and for the people who love them) I…
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Anybody Have a Map?
March 8. International Women’s Day. My social media feeds are full of inspirational and aspirational posts celebrating women. That’s nice. It’s nice to have a “day” to celebrate the achievements – both big and small – of women. It’s nice to have an opportunity to celebrate women leaving their lasting fingerprints and legacy. There’s no…
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Love, Grace & Twitter
I am a fairly recent and definitely late to the party Twitter user. I have had an account for a few years, but only recently began actually using it – both posting and following others. I tend to shy away from (sometimes run away from) conflict and much of Twitter is just pot stirring, name…
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Behind the Smiles
We took a couple of days to get out-of-town at the beginning of last week – just the four of us and the dog exploring a local mountain town. If you try to piece together our time away based on social media posts, you’d assume it was a relaxed couple of days full of food…
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TimeHop, 20/20 Hindsight, and Dyslexia
I try to not live with regret. But when it comes to my kids, there are definitely things I wish we’d done better, or sooner, or different. Hindsight is 20/20 and thanks to social media, I am often reminded that sometimes there are warning signs we don’t always recognize as warning signs in real-time. This…
We're All A Little Broken 