We are now part of the Key Ministry family and all our new content will be featured there. We'll leave this site up as a resource and hope you'll join our team of writers at our new home. … [Read more...]
The White Noise of Disability
It’s my birthday. What do I want, you ask? A little peace and quiet. That’s all. I want the fighting to stop, and the doors to stop slamming, and the dogs to stop barking, and the hollering for “can you bring me up a whatever” to just cease for a blasted minute, because kids are loud, and ours are louder. They are a next-level kind of loud. The loud of special needs and mental illness that … [Read more...]
Help in a Flash
To every stranger that steps in, especially in such unexpected ways…Thank you! Max and I aren’t planning to go anywhere, exactly. It’s more that we’re planning to go everywhere. But now a days the criteria for doing so has changed. When I was a kid you could pack up your woodcarving tools, wheel them onto a 747, and whittle a spear mid-flight. But things are different now. The world is different … [Read more...]
Autism and Dementia: How Do We Cope?
Last week, on a gloomy Thursday afternoon, I sat in the prayer room on our retreat center’s property with a student from Miami University. It was the first meeting of a spiritual mentoring relationship. I lit a candle and made her a cup of tea. Frankly, I wondered if I had anything to give that day. The day before I’d visited my mom, who is careening headlong into full-blown dementia. I’d … [Read more...]
What I Learned Through the Deep, Hard Struggles
Lamentations 3:21-23 This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope. It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness. I love to start things. I love the challenge. I love to look at things when they are fresh and new and I also like to create things out of nothing. How about … [Read more...]
Where Can I Find Peace?
Finding peace when your heart is breaking is difficult. Many of us have lost loved ones or are struggling just day to day and sometimes the holiday stressors can feel so heavy and we are more sensitive because of all the busyness. It doesn't feel that long ago when I sat and watched my son gasp for breath in the hospital, he was barely one year-old. He had asthma and when it came boy it was … [Read more...]