Broken Lives Matter

 Hello Lovelies! I found this video fascinating. For one thing, I've asked (and tried to determine) if I am Autistic even just by a little bit--throughout my life. And indeed, as a younger person I was quiet, introverted to a fault, and nearly non-verbal in a classroom. Turns out, I was just in entirely the wrong situation for my own learning style. A classroom full of almost-strangers is intimidating! Not to mention the colors, displays, learning tools and distractions all around me could be extremely detrimental to someone with sensory overload, which brings me to the first point. Temperature Regulation Issues My friends, the speaker in this video explains it so much more concisely than I could, but let me tell you, it's been a problem. I'm actually surprised that temperature regulation issues are specific to Autistic people in this reel, because it has been a problem for me that a number  of factors contribute to, not just neurodiversity. Who among us hasn't at one p...

Hello Lovelies! I've just looked at the forecast; come Monday the disrespectfully low temperatures and their wind chills, along with the mounds and mounds of fluffy white frozen marshmallow snow that causes depression will all begin to disappear! Personally, I cannot wait; I'm counting the hours. Meanwhile, I present you the cutest little snuggle button I've ever seen, small enough to snuggle in a tissue box, but he'd probably hate that because it would bother his arthritis:) I call him Toddy, though I bet he has a different name. What would YOU name this little bit? https://www.facebook.com/reel/2370445169827485 

Good Morning, Lovelies! Winter has finally come, well into the calendar season, and disrespectfully. There is a major storm brewing in the region for the entire weekend, to the point where I've cancelled everything for today, planning to hermit until any percieved danger is past:) This is good news for readers! And writers too; we can just stay in, silence phones and other technology, and focus on words on a page. Digesting or producing said words, it's much nicer than struggling through wind and weather. I didn't even read the windchill temperatures in online forecasts; I want to avoid despair. FOCUSING: I found the following while scrolling and it spoke to me. I won't go into exactly which things are triggered from my past or why, but there WAS an incident just this weekend that made this meme resonate like a Cathedral bell. Like a cave echo. Like a tuning fork. And it really made me think. If such can be true for me, it must also be extremely true for others. Whi...

For some people, their bliss is more important to them than doing the right thing. So they stay willfully ignorant. * To be clear, I have never experienced this personally--at least not in a way I noticed. But it happens to many, many of us. Like those people in wheelchairs who freeze to death outside their apartment building because nobody will open the door for them, or stop in their passing to call up (a very inaccessible feature for people in wheelchairs, I might add, as the keypad for an aparttment building is only eye-level to an able-bodied person) for someone to unlock the door. Maybe the person in the wheelchair is shy about asking those entering the building to hold it for them--if any happen by. Or maybe because it IS a cold night, nobody is going near the building doors either to go in OR come out. So those willfully unseen suffer:( This reminds me of my four years living in a downtown area, and all the unhomed individuals I saw every single day. I gave everything ex...

Hello Lovelies! I'm having a lonely moment:( It's another gray day in town, with snow in the forecast. And I know I'm not the only one getting gloomy this time of year, even without any snow. My sadness today comes from having to deal with "young people loneliness"--feeling isolated, feeling misunderstood, disrespected, and often disregarded...AS WELL as "old people loneliness"--that feeling that others are afraid you'll break if you hug them too tight:( When hugs are my very, favorite thing! Or if not my favorite thing, one of the top 5:) So because I believe if you have a grievance, you don't have to sit around and complain, you can get up and there is ALWAYS something to be done to get out of the situation--I'm doing something. Meet Clara Woods, a wonderful, mostly non-verbal stroke survivor. She's also remarkably young, which reminds me of my would-have-been husband Michael, who had a stroke as a very young man yet lived in a wheel...