Mikelle and I feel compelled to write about life with a disability, not just the challenges but the opportunities, the friendships, the innovations, and the brilliance of our communities in action as we share our everyday life living with a disability. With a little more information, motivation, we hope to share how our life is shining beautiful and maybe help you to shine beautiful, too.
The Purse Diva Acquires New Shopping Strategies During Lockdown
Mikelle’s inner fashionista is frustrated! One of Mikelle’s loves in life is Mikelle’s is purse shopping. Typically, just after coffee and before Gilmore Girls, Mikelle reaches for her iPad. Her long finger scrolls through the pages until she finds her Visual Scheduler app. As Mikelle lists the various activities she
Wait! What Happened to Our Community?
Creating Community in the Time of Social Distancing. Mikelle looks longing out our second-story window reminiscing about the days when her routine included a trip down the street to the neighborhood coffee shop. There she gets her people and caffeine fix. This is her well-loved routine. Pablos in the
Soul Mates. A Story of Love and Friendship
Fifteen years ago, a thoughtful high school teacher introduced Mikelle Learned and Jerome Stewart, she had a hunch these two might become the best of friends. She was right. Jerome played football, ran track and was a well-liked senior at East High School. He, like Mikelle, was a recent transfer
Happy New Year!
Happy New Year! As we begin this new year, I am aware of two things. One, I am getting older. Two, the world is changing faster and faster getting more complicated every day. My strategy is to learn to be young in thought and deed. Young people tend to be
Holiday Harmony
Many of you, who came of age in the 1970s like me, remember being inspired by a television commercial. It was a Coca Cola commercial, where a lighted candle appears on the screen, and we see a young, beautiful woman singing, “I’d Like the World to Sing in Perfect Harmony,”
Holiday Blessings
Bless our hearts. The heart, our capable and vigorous organ pumps our life force throughout our body. It pumps while we wake, slumber, worry, laugh, hug, quarrel, growl at traffic, touch a lover’s hand, sip hot coffee, savor a mint julep, or a tangy sassy margarita. As Christmas approaches, our
Feeling Out of Balance?
Whoa! Does the world appear to be a little off-balance these days or what? Let’s be real. Most of what we knew growing up no longer exists. Wishing we could go back to what appeared to be stable and predictable isn’t going to help you cope with a quickly changing
Jim Warne, Ogalala Lakota film producer meets Mikelle!
Recently, Mikelle and I had the honor of interviewing Jim Warne, film producer of the documentary, 7th Generation. I met Jim at the Washington Initiative on Supported Employment annual Community Summit last June. She attended is a powerful session on disability, the importance of community and tradition and learned more
Welcome, Sunshine!
Why is it important to announce a new team member? For one thing, we love to share the sunshine in our lives! Take a look, Salena radiates love and fun, doesn’t she? We offer tips and tricks to everyday life with a disability that can show others in search of
Clock In/Clock Out
Electronic Visit Verification is raging across the country. See how two families are dealing with it in Colorado.
Stitches in Time
To Mom on your 90th Birthday. Your life made mine and mine have shaped Mikelle’s and has sewn into the hearts of many to live life well and to shine beautiful. The women who come before us help us today as special needs moms. A tribute to you. You showed
Saying Sayonara
Saying Goodbye to Liz… By Taylor Mason, Shining Beautiful Team Member When you work with an individual as unique as Mikelle Learned as long as I have (six years, yikes!) you come to learn some very important things about the other employees in your team. Taking care of Mikelle day