A Day With Ms Mikelle There are lots of things that Mikelle loves to do each day. She’s famous among her friends and family for insisting on getting her Starbucks frappe daily and for occasionally sneaking out of the apartment to hit the grocery store alone. She loves shopping for purses for herself and stuffed […]
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It is that time of year, the school year is winding down and summer plans are shaping up. By now, the application process for most summer camps is completed and the steep application fees have been paid. Parents and students now anxiously await the arrival of the approval letter, which usually arrives by “snail mail.”
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Is Craigslist God’s Way of Saving the World? Tiredness sets in. I hear my bed’s urgent call, “Get in here!” I fail to heed the call, and instead, grab my Smart Phone and check it one more time before I give up on another long day. The switch from daylight savings time has thrown me
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It was Mikelle’s brother, Kasey, who loved cats. His seven year old hands helped rescue “Vampire,” a gray hodgepodge of a kitten from beneath the pfitzer bushes standing sentry to the entrance of our home on Ponds View Place, back when we had grass, a sprawling ranch-style home with an uncertain future. When we sold
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Life with Mikelle: Balancing our Special Needs I thought living with my daughter would either be intense, even feverish. or cool and somewhat detached. After all, I am the “backup” her “just-in-case” person, the one she will use as needed, like a first aid kit. But, as any special needs parent knows, both scenarios
As I enter our home, it is warm and bathed in soft light. I take off my coat and hang it on the hook near the door as I reflect on life in its present incarnation. I thought living with my daughter would either be intense, even feverish, in my attempts to help her find
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In Love With Love By Taylor Mason “Learning how to love is the goal and the purpose of spiritual life — not learning how to develop psychic powers, not learning how to bow, chant, do yoga, or even meditate, but learning to love. Love is the truth. Love is the light.” – Lama Surya Das
The More things Change, the More they Stay the Same? The daily adventures of being a “special needs” mother often feels like the movie, Ground Hog’s Day. You wake up and find certain rituals and routines follow you through decades and no matter how hard you try to change it up, they repeat. In my
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Reluctant eagerness. Yes, those two words capture my dilemma each time I take a break from being a “special needs mom” and caregiver—if there is such a thing. Respite is good for both of us. On one hand, I am eager to leap out of my routine. Since, Mikelle graduated from high school, I have
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Happy New Year. Either I am getting older, or the world is getting more complicated—or both. This year at The Shining Beautiful Series, we decided to keep our celebrations simple, grabbing for clarity rather than verbosity. On January 2nd, sitting in my favorite coffee shop awaiting the arrival of my delicious latte, I flipped
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