True Friendship Isn’t Built on Pity
Years ago, one of our kids came home from preschool and said, “She cries a lot and doesn’t share her toys.” Our child were talking about a classmate who had…
“You are a human. You belong here.”
I’ve been thinking a lot about belonging—what it feels like, where we find it, and how we create spaces that nurture it, spaces that say, "You are a human. You…
The Lucky Few: Finding Delight and Belonging in Disability
When Heather Avis says she’s one of “the lucky few,” she means it. In this episode, we talk about growing up with our children with Down syndrome, what it means…
RFK Jr., Autism, and the Story We Need Instead
Apple YouTube Spotify More! Is disability a tragedy? Is it a gift? What place is there for grief and for joy in this story of disability so many of us…
Honoring the Good, the Hard, and the In Between
There’s something special about connecting with a person who not only lives in the small town where you grew up, but also shares a similar parenting journey. That’s how I…
Spread the Word to End the Word
To my knowledge, no one has ever called our daughter Penny by the most common slur used to demean people with intellectual disabilities, the r-word. I’m glad she hasn’t been…
How to Navigate the Pressures of Modern Family Life
Our front hall table is still covered in holiday cards. There are the uber-organized people who sent their cards at Thanksgiving, then the steady stream of happy faces that arrived…
Cultivating Connection One Word at a Time
I once shared a post that included a story from someone who identified as a "person with autism." To respect their choice of words, I used the same term in…
How to Talk About Disability
Apple YouTube Spotify More! Is disability a tragedy? Are disabled people “inspiring”? The language we use often reveals our assumptions about disability. Carrie Hahn, a pediatric speech-language pathologist and mother,…
Belonging Begins With an Invitation
One of the most heartbreaking aspects of being a mother is watching our kids get excluded. I’ve seen it at times for all three of them, but exclusion happens most…
