Category: Speaking Out Loud
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Grace, Grit, and an Unfinished Story
The idea for this blog first took root in my heart as I sat in the sanctuary of Riviera United Methodist Church on Maundy Thursday of 2016. This is the church that has been my spiritual home for 17 years and my place of employment for almost 7 years. It is also the place where…
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Note to self…
Dear Dena, Today started with an email from your son’s therapist that included this…”It seems increasingly urgent that we meet ASAP to collaborate more closely and consider what may be needed for O at this time. He does seem to be deteriorating over the last several months now.” It’s not that you didn’t see that…
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Head, Heart & Hating…Why Parenting is HARD!
Fair warning – I doubt that this is a legitimate and coherent blog post. It’s likely going to be more of a brain dump. But a brain dump that will make my heart feel better. So that’s a good thing. Right? This parenting thing? I am so not enjoying it right now. I actually kind…
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Speak Up
In three vastly different scenarios today I found myself either thinking or speaking these words….Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves ~ Proverbs 31:8 See somebody hurting? Speak up. See somebody being hurt? Speak up. See a broken system? Speak up. Faced with the choice to do nothing or do something? Speak up.…
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Finding His Voice
When describing our son, my husband often will talk about his incredibly strong “justice meter’. Our boy feels deeply and intensely. There is right, and there is wrong. There is fair and there is unfair. There is equity and there is inequity. And he will always point it out. If the injustice is one toward…
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Sticks and Stones…Words Matter
Intentionally choosing words that are derogatory, inflammatory, stigmatizing….that is not sticks and stones. It is trees and boulders crashing down in a landslide and destroying everything in their path.
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Reality Check: Mental Health, Violence and False Perceptions
In a world that is increasingly polarized by media outlets that are increasingly polarizing, it is a challenge to get non-biased, fact based instead of opinion based, reporting. On any given day, I listen to and read the news from a wide variety of media outlets – all in an attempt to piece together the…
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Valentine’s Day – Real. Raw. Broken. Beautiful.
So Valentine’s Day. Commercial holiday? Totally. But do I still love any excuse to shower some love on my kids and husband? Totally. Sometimes showering love in real life, doesn’t always look like it does in my head. Today was one of those days. Today showering love looked like me holding my son as he…
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Living With Grace & Grit
Confession time… Lately, I have been really, really, really bad at life. All of the little stuff that makes long to-do lists – it’s just not getting done lately. Adulting is hard…Parenting is hard…Adulting and parenting together lately have me reeling. I’ve been running on fumes for almost a month – and there is way too much…
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Lessons from a Ghost of Christmas Past
We had a truly great meeting with my son’s psychiatrist yesterday. For the first time in the 18 months he’s been under the care of this doctor, my son actually looked him in the eye while he was speaking. And he smiled. And he laughed. And it was amazing. It’s still not a place he’d…
We're All A Little Broken 