Broken Lives Matter

Hello Lovelies! I hope you all had a nice weekend; I certainly did, but it was entirely too short, as they all are. One thing I have found joyful about my workaday life is that there is so much popping up in my social media feeds to inspire me. I present to you for your enjoyment, this reel gem: https://www.facebook.com/reel/655681913600411 A bit about Madison Tevlin, though her Wikipedia page is disappointingly short:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madison_Tevlin  I hope this just means that we are in for a much longer, greater body of work from this lady; she clearly cannot wait to prove the world wrong about people with challenges. And after all, it is so  much fun to surprise them.

Hello Lovelies! It's nice to be getting so many reminders of this lately. I don't think I can restate it often enough:

Hello Lovelies! The meme below was posted by a group called Autism Inspiration. Their description is thus:  "Welcome to Autism Inspiration! "Inspiring and empowering the autism community with positivity, support, and awareness every day." <iframe src="https://www.facebook.com/plugins/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fpermalink.php%3Fstory_fbid%3Dpfbid02Cr8cSaUMRkv13DqkjPGX1PAUf93cXp2VNeAm9r763A4JiMPgddarMdXjEKvSqDRcl%26id%3D61564853816241&show_text=true&width=500" width="500" height="419" style="border:none;overflow:hidden" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="true" allow="autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; picture-in-picture; web-share"></iframe> Well, boy was I inspired. But in a different way. I commented beneath the image: " Not every Autistic kid is in a wheelchair. Why is this one? The message is acceptance, yet in a traditional ...

Look at me, my Lovelies! I'm taking steps to bring awareness to my community, endeavoring to ensure that we are not the next group forgotten:  <iframe src="https://www.facebook.com/plugins/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fgay.equality.5%2Fposts%2Fpfbid02y1kjwBTnnxM2HHZNw5YBLaYjyeuY82DvySyUWTHuH6fXcZyjUtxXqTuLcANhD7hwl&show_text=true&width=500" width="500" height="590" style="border:none;overflow:hidden" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="true" allow="autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; picture-in-picture; web-share"></iframe>

 Hello Lovelies! I was scrolling and thought we all needed a little dose of Bitty and Beau's. Fun fact; the 9 of Hearts supposedly symbolizes emotional growth:  https://www.facebook.com/reel/9188384154588746

Hello lovelies! Today is gorgeous. The blue sky and sunshine put one in mind of summer. The snow and icy temperatures tell the real story. It is still the Winter of our discontent. With the state of the country, my heart goes out to everyone shoved violently out of sight. I know what it's like to be the unseen. One of the jokes I tell people is that "going invisible" is my super power. Sometimes people I've known for years walk right past me. Or I can disappear within my tiny condo and it feels unoccupied. Not that I'm trying  to be small, necessarily. It's more a defense mechanism when the time is right. Changes in policy lately have meant that going invisible for one's own safety isn't even a choice any more. Some people are just invisible. To those without a sense of humanity. These days I've become a bit of a zealot about making the "invisible" people visible, if it is within my power. I don't have that many tools at my disposal y...

  Hello! On this observance of the late, magnificent Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., I feel moved to write. And my friends, it's days like this when creativity is a useful outlet for our emotions, whatever they are. So I return to my old favorite art, one I discovered my aptitude for in high school and has never quite deserted me. Though Heaven knows I've let my talent fall by the wayside and not considered it much of a gift for years and years at a stretch. Throughout my life I've had long, long moments of grief and silence where I needed to withdraw to collect myself, and didn't feel at all like giving  back to a world that had robbed me of something I loved. Indeed my only focus at those times was  what I then lacked, and what I longed for. I wasn't thinking clearly or creatively. I thought only of a gaping black hole, freshly opened in my life, where my grandmother, father, fiance or best friend had been. And it felt like there was nothing that could ever fill the ...

Hi Lovelies! This popped up in my Facebook reels, and I loved it so much I had to share. The way the founder, Eno came to create "Real Sound: Kaze No Regret" is just so inspiring. It reminds me of the time Fred Rogers read a letter from a blind fan telling him she worried that he never fed his fish. From that moment on, during his show "Mr. Rogers' Nieghborhood", he would always announce when he was feeding his fish! I never appreciated the beauty of that moment; as a kid I always wondered why he had to say out loud what we could "all" see he was doing! Silly me. There are all kinds of people in this world who get enjoyment out of having the TV on, even if they don't experience it the same way other viewers do. That's what I love about the inception of this video game. It is inclusive. It opens the world up for people who are in it, but might be missing out on some small part of it because of conditions well beyond their control. What I love ab...

 Something we could all benefit from knowing right now, and in my humble opinion, a little easier to imitate than Ronnie:) I like his style, but this lays out the process of communication through sign a little better, and takes its time showing you technique. https://www.facebook.com/reel/618238414069105

New feature! This is Ronnie McKenzie, a recent found favorite. His reels pop up regularly on my Facebook feed, and he also posts to Instagram, where I've also recently become a follower. His reels are all interesting, but I've included just the latest one I've seen. It's easier to learn a language, I've found, through first learning a song in that language. And since I once told FB that I would love to learn ASL, I guess they took my wish as their command!   https://www.facebook.com/share/r/18phz6wBBg/

I'm having a very hard time with the election results. I ask myself which marginalized community will be first or next to feel the sting of what our new reality means. I've talked to people today who have done a lot to calm me down, but I still feel the need to post this: <iframe src="https://www.facebook.com/plugins/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FDisneyyLover%2Fposts%2Fpfbid05CzeUN2du2Q6n8EqycSYeRwNK27cYtMEwLYb9UM3TQLGrhrVuZv8LGwjbLPZ7yPRl&show_text=true&width=500" width="500" height="250" style="border:none;overflow:hidden" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="true" allow="autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; picture-in-picture; web-share"></iframe>

Everyone should see this. The double stall is not for the comfort of able-bodied individuals without a mobility aid. The double stall is a public facility's bare minimum compliance with the ADA requirements mandated in 1990. That is how many centuries we have had to deal with a world that never acknowledged our presence before . The double stall represents the Disabled finally being allowed  to coexist with the able-bodied. Allow us our minimum standard in public.  https://fb.watch/v97lSCJSNA/

Dear friends. Summer is lingering, at least here in the Midwest. I'm reminded how nice the sand feels on bare feet, and how much it means for the Disabled to be included in the day to day joys of summer activities. Why shouldn't we all enjoy a beach?  <iframe src="https://www.facebook.com/plugins/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FMisaOnWheels%2Fposts%2Fpfbid0b9QRjXQCKfaJf6MoCFZ3tsFWyPP5t6aGkNscVBoE5absinXC4Kik29h2dP2TkBqSl&show_text=true&width=500" width="500" height="250" style="border:none;overflow:hidden" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="true" allow="autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; picture-in-picture; web-share"></iframe>

From the Facebook Reels of Michael Kutcher:   https://www.facebook.com/stories/109715777626156/UzpfSVNDOjE4NzQzNDU0MjY0MjI4NTc=/?view_single=1

 Hello Lovelies!      I feel called upon. Let's number the ways to love, and expound on the feelings behind, this quote that clearly resonates with many. Not to mention send a little love to the very one who said it, son of a political candidate.      In my humble opinion, this child, who struggles with challenges I was unable to find details of, has also in one moment restored a sense of wonder and appreciation for human effort in this world. It's an appreciation that I think has been very much overshadowed and even belittled in the world today, as if it were childish and something to malign.       Why shouldn't  we stand in admiration of this simple yet profound statement, no matter who said it? There are those in this country who mock simplicity and disregard the statements of the disabled, preferring to stay in their bubble of "these people are different and therefore inferior." On the contrary, it is these pure souls and k...

Context: "Hymmne a l'amour" is Paris' National Anthem You guys! Check out what happened in France, this gorgeous day before the Opening Ceremonies commence on the Seine this evening:  https://www.facebook.com/reel/1438108896833025 According to a little Google Translate-sleuthing, the rough interpretation is this: "Kevin Piette, paraplegic since an accident, made history by carrying the Olympic flame with his exoskeleton" I could not be more excited! A torch-bearer in the able Olympics, and not even the Para-Olympics--displaying openly that persistence is key:) Of course I'm not denigrating what the athletes in the Para-Olympics do, or how important those Games are to sports everywhere. However, how cool is it that the "regular" Olympics are recognizing that an athlete is an athlete, a man is a man--regardless of the challenges he faces? Had to share this timely gem with all of you; it will inspire me  throughout these coming Games of the "...

Look what they're doing at Mary Free Bed! It's a great way to get kids sweating and smiling in the sun, getting some fun exercise. And I imagine the kids not in a wheelchair are learning a lot about patience and compassion as well:)   https://www.facebook.com/stories/105480941615842/UzpfSVNDOjQ3NTQzODU4MTc5ODU0Mg==/?view_single=1

Good Afternoon, Lovelies, Lately I've seen a lot of evidence that the world is waking up. They see how my community can contribute to society, and they celebrate it. It's a far, far cry from just five years ago when I despaired of us ever being seen. A case in point of this new reality is a post I scrolled past on Facebook. Right there for the world to see, praising the purity and honesty in this world that is often anything but. Beginning to use Uber was indeed, for me, a giant leap outside of my comfort zone. The kindness of my drivers has taken the anxiety mostly out of the equation! Indeed, last time I rode in a "stranger's" car, they were sweet, and even ten minutes early! I have also learned that Uber strives to be an amazingly inclusive company! I thought perhaps the perks ended with benefits to riders with disabilities only, but this sign proves that they make concessions for drivers with disabilities as well. I couldn't love the added bit about music ...

Hello Lovelies! Sharing a reel that I really love. Because it shows how indiscriminate love is. We all know it when we feel it. There is no one excluded, and it doesn't all look the same. The message of this month, celebrated across the country for  LGBTQIA+  identities and lifestyles, is that "love is love" in all its iterations wherever it shows up. These two individuals don't look  the same as other people, who might believe that in order for love to be "real" it has to look a certain way. So they try to make us be small and manageable so the "typical" lovers don't feel uncomfortable. When my late fiancee and I would talk about it, I always mused of the outsiders, "they think it's cute that we're in love." Call me old-fashioned or foolish or hopelessly naive--all three are possible. But in my heart I know this. Love just is. What love is. <iframe src="https://www.facebook.com/plugins/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww....

 Hello Lovelies! Just an inspiring bit of happiness for you on this Tuesday: <iframe src="https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?height=476&href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FDadSaysJokes%2Fvideos%2F314651621695534%2F&show_text=true&width=380&t=0" width="380" height="591" style="border:none;overflow:hidden" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="true" allow="autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowFullScreen="true"></iframe>