#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.

Owning the Rain – Awaiting the Sun

Strange weather this week – and more work to do…

The Magnificent Contraction

It’s not from the Farm on Willow Road, but there’s still something to say…

Letting Go and Clearing the Canvas

From the moment we accepted the offer on the farm to the July morning we drove away, there was a truly insane amount of work to do. But what does it look like to do the even larger emotional work of actually letting go?