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Showing posts from December, 2014

A Very Merry Christmas

It has been almost a month since I last posted. I was being all thankful during the month of November and now I find myself 4 days from Christmas and I am again feeling thankful. Thankful for my friends and family, thankful for my home and my cat, thankful for everything. I have fallen off the training wagon until about a week ago, and fallen off the healthy wagon months ago. I guess I have fallen off the blogging wagon too. This is where I acknowledge that I am going to take a break from blogging until after the new year. I wish you all the most delightful Christmas!!!

People First

I was blessed with participating in meaningful volunteer opportunities at a young age. It all started with confirmation hours in eighth grade... I went on every trip to the soup kitchen and the Christmas wrapping days, I also signed up to help people with disabilities participate in recreational activities. And so began my first lesson on people first language. Perhaps you have heard of it? It is that whole idea that when you are introducing or talking about a person, you should always address them by name first. So for instance, if I were talking about my favorite TV show, and I wanted to talk about Max and his disability, I would introduce the topic by saying something like: Max, the boy with asperger, NOT: the asberger boy Max. This language has become so common to me, even writing the second statement makes me extremely uncomfortable. So, I was having a discussion about how people hang flags in front of their houses, or put bumper stickers or messages on the back of their cars. We

Transforming Your Fears

I never realize how truly lucky I am until something very small happens and it sheds light on everything. One of the scariest symptoms I have with this thing called MS is my choking from time to time because I can't swallow properly. I remember the first time it happened and it really scared me. It was the final day of my jury duty for a murder trial, it was my birthday and also the day before Thanksgiving. It was about 8 years ago, actually. The story goes as this, I was driving home from Jury Duty. I was in a crummy neighborhood on the southside of Chicago and I was eating a snack. The courthouse was not known for providing good food during lunch, nor was it known for its safe surroundings. Anyway, it was a cold rainy night, I was snacking on something and all of a sudden I was gagging on my food for some unknown reason. I wasn't known to carry my cell phone all the time back then, and my mind went to the worst place. I was going to choke and pass out at a stop light, someone