You know the expression, “stop and smell the roses?” I don’t tend roses anymore, except for the hardy stress-free climbers. Hybrid tea roses are too persnickety to feel at home in my wild and crazy chemical free garden. I’m waiting for botanists to create disease resistant roses that still retain their spicy sweet fragrance. Nevertheless, in the meantime, I have plenty of other flowers that show off just fine their mingled perfumes.
I’ve reached a milestone today. . . Yay, it’s launch day for my book, Tell the Truth About Adultery. I can’t say that this is a dream come true, because adultery is not anyone’s desired dream. However, finding a publisher who believed in the merit of my story and taking a gamble on that story having an audience, well now, that is a dream come true!
Chronic illness is exactly what it says; it is consistently vexing and continually troubling. I have lupus, a chronic autoimmune disorder that gifts me every few months with a new twist on its ramifications. Lupus’ symptoms don’t vanish with treatment, but ebb and flow depending on how diligent I am with self-care and how mercurial the progressive disease decides to be.
An old gospel chorus is buzzing in my ears today reminding me that even when I do feel lonely, God’s assurances state otherwise. The chorus goes, “No, never alone, no never alone. He promised never to leave me, never to leave me alone.”
In the hope drenched dewy spring morning, when I’m confronted with the birds and bees exuberantly all-a-flutter doing their thing, I sometimes experience the opposite. I instead feel a sharp stab of being an outsider, alone with chronic pain, not belonging to the riotous activities surrounding me.
I was flipping through some old journal writings and came across an entry I had written after visiting my mom in 2014 in her assisted living apartment. She had been legally blind for at least a decade, so bringing a new person to visit presented a challenge. As usual, she faced and leaped over that hurdle.
I started my doctoral studies in Curriculum and Instruction because I wanted to understand why our education system purges out students with disabilities from participating in post-secondary education. Their dreams of succeeding in college were being censored by a society that would prefer that they remain in the background. My students inspired me to chart a path for them through my doctoral studies, a path tailored for their advocacy.