For the Ones Who Make Us Smile as the Plane Goes Down

To this day, I’m not sure how close that plane was to crashing. Suffice to say, I certainly believed we weren’t going to make it … but an unsung hero helped me to stay calm. I’m no stranger to flying; in the past 6 weeks alone, I’ve boarded 11 flights for speaking engagements. Ordinary turbulence is no big deal. Yet I’ve never experienced anything like what happened on that flight. I was 15, flying home from Italy with my parents, brother, and best friends. We’d traveled abroad for a church gathering, and after a week of eating gelato and saying...
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On Accepting Yourself (Even if Self-Checkout Tries to Shame You)

Once upon a time I was at a Walmart in Alabama, doing my best not to be a Jersey girl. That is, I was trying not to rush and dash and move at twice the speed of other shoppers. (Talk about accepting yourself.) Every checkout line was long, so I headed to self-checkout. My pragmatic husband loves self-checkout: the efficiency! The autonomy! The lack of interaction! I would rather go to a cashier, though. I like cashiers. They’re people, which means they’re family. Self-checkout and I … we just don’t get along. I try to be careful, but I always...
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Take It & Run: On Soul Trains & the One Necessary Thing

My husband and I moved from DC to Alabama over a year ago. It's been a year of renovation and renewal, and it has gone by so terrifyingly FAST. There have been some lonely times, when I wondered why we decided to pull up roots and say goodbye to beloved friends. There have been some frustrating times, when I wondered how I'd ever learn to drive a stick-shift pickup. And there have been times – like this past weekend – when it all just came together and made sense. My husband and I hosted two guests from DC, my lifelong...
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Overhearing that Argument (A Lesson Learned in Laughter)

Happy Monday, all! First off, I'd like to welcome visitors from Autism Key and I'm A Mom Too. I have two guest posts up this week; "Autism, Siblings and the R-Word Effect" and, "A Lifetime of Lies (And A Truth to Set You Free)." First-time visitors, be sure to check out the welcome video (to your right and below), and visit the About page. Finally, I'd like to offer you a gift: Your Creed of Care: How To Dig For Treasure In People (Without Getting Buried Alive). This book is about balancing the responsibilities of caregiving with the responsibility of...
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