Christmas Greetings
We all got caught on our back foot with a compressed holiday season. But what is the season trying to tell us (read, me) amid all of the busyness?
Grief + 1 Year: I’m not moving on…
It’s been one year since I said goodbye to my dad. The crush of life wants me to “move on”, but I think I’ve found a more honest way…
#StuffSheTeachesMe ~ Connection Matters Most
For all of the things we work so hard on to teach Julia about how to navigate this life, I’m finding she has a thing or two to teach us.
Is Trump a Racist? Wrong Question.
Can we really look into the heart of a person we don’t know and make a judgment call on their intrinsic character? Maybe there are more productive questions to ask? And who is asking them in the first place?
Meanwhile, Progress.
You are about to witness in this short missive the boundless joy coupled with the urge to punch yourself in the head that a parent of a kid with special needs experiences from time to time.
Gethsemane
I came upon a stirring pair of sculptures while hiking on my retreat. They depicted Jesus’ despair in the Garden of Gethsemane as three of his disciples slept. I sat and contemplated, and in an out-of-character nudge of creativity (for poetry, any way), the following verse is the result…
A Eulogy to Bob Cook
There were so many of you who wanted to be there for Dad’s memorial today; but time and distance made it understandably tough. I thought I’d get you the adapted notes of my eulogy for him. Thanks so much for your love and support!
Everybody Wins – One Dad’s Perspective on World Down Syndrome Day
Life is just as crazy as ever with a mountain of projects and a stacked up calendar. But a week before World Down Syndrome Day, it took a kid stringing fruit cereal on a pipe cleaner to remind me of what’s really going on.
First Birthday Apart…
There are totems and touchstones of my dad everywhere that make me smile. But we are at a big milestone that is making the heaviness return just a bit. It’s a mix of sorrow and gratitude with which I step into his first birthday that I can’t celebrate with him.
In Every Life, At Least One
Though we often push forward despite the pain we carry, sometimes it’s best to pull aside for a bit and find out what’s really going on.