Family. Real. Raw. Broken. Beautiful.
There are days when the absolute last thing I want to spend my limited mental energy on is peeking over the pandemic wall to catch a glimpse of what might be. But if I want a real chance to be better prepared for life post COVID-19 than we were for life during COVID-19, I have to keep walking right up to that pandemic wall and risking both the heartbreak and the hope that might be seen on the other side.
44 weeks of running on fumes and having to repeatedly pivot to new ways of doing life/parenting/work, combined with angst surrounding national security in the wake of the attempted insurrection, anxiety over new and more aggressive COVID variants, the close-but-not-close-enough promise of being vaccinated, and deep concern about the current state of my eldest child’s fragile mental health all collided in slow motion.
On this day 15 years ago there was so much I did not know. I certainly didn’t imagine that our every day would include my child living (thriving) with mental illness. And that means that somewhere out there this evening are other mothers, in other hospitals, waiting for their own baby to join the world – and evidence shows that approximately 20% of those unborn children will likely have a diagnosable mental illness at some point in their lives.
My son is living with anxiety and depression, but the entire family lives with the fallout caused by his anxiety and depression.
My wish for you this holiday is to let go. Let go and find the space to rest, to love your people fully, and to find your own peace, joy, laughter and togetherness among the imperfection.
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…
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…
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 ask you all to do me a favor – look beyond the label and see the person.
We're All A Little Broken 