I read a book last year by Greg McKeown. My favorite part came at the end, when McKeown offered a personal story of his daughter having epilepsy. His first responses was to feel the need to become an expert, to learn everything he could about epilepsy and seizures. Eventually, he realized that all the time he was spending on research was taking him away from what he was actually supposed to do: be her dad.
As parents of children with disabilities, we don’t have to know everything or solve everything or answer every question. Misty Coy Snyder and I talked about this on Take the Next Step. Here are a few of her insights:
1. Take only the next step.
When everything feels overwhelming, Misty encourages parents to focus on just one or two meaningful tasks rather than trying to solve every problem at once.
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2. You don’t have to be the expert on everything.
Parents can release the pressure to know and manage it all by trusting teachers, doctors, specialists, and others who can walk alongside them.
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3. Be present where your feet are planted.
Disability can invite us to slow down, pay attention, and find beauty in the moment we’re living right now.
There’s more. Listen here: What We Need to Know About Disability and Happiness with Misty Coy Snyder
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Amy Julia Becker desires to challenge assumptions about the good life, proclaim the inherent belovedness of every human being, and help us envision and build a world of belonging where everyone matters. Amy Julia invites people to reimagine the good life through her writing and speaking on disability, faith, and culture. She is the author of several books, including To Be Made Well, White Picket Fences, Small Talk, and A Good and Perfect Gift. She is a guest opinion writer for national publications and hosts two podcasts: Take the Next Step and Reimagining the Good Life. Becker is a graduate of Princeton University and Princeton Theological Seminary (MDiv). She is a member of the Disability Ministry Network and the Alliance for Disability Justice and Ethics in Reproductive Genetics. She lives with her husband and their three children in western Connecticut.
