One Foot In Front of the Other

This week one of my high school classmates died suddenly.  Casey Croxton was only 58 years old.   He was a successful attorney in our home town.  Casey and I did not know each other well in high school, but we acknowledged each other in passing from time to time, as high schoolers do.  The forty years since we graduated seems to have flown by.  I was thinking about high school, and the magical and terrible place that it is. A high school is a micro community.  We lived and walked and learned beside each other.  We feared and loved each other.  We were divided by so many imaginary barriers - beauty, brains, social status, income.  Some of us were moved in packs, others of us existed in solitude.  Sometimes we just wanted to have fun, sometimes we yearned to move on and away from the small town where most of us had spent our short lives.  We might grow up, but we thought we'd never change, that we would always have each other. ...

Parenting a child with autism is an exercise in reading between the lines.  What is my child trying to say with his behavior or outburst?  Communication is often difficult for children with autism, especially when they also are developmentally delayed.  Kenny and I have become pretty good at reading between the lines. Not only were we thrown for a loop when HD entered the picture, but it seems we forgot about reading between the lines.  One of the gifts God has given lately is reminding us that we need to use our "spidey sense" (as our niece would say) and read between the lines. Lacy has been wanting to come home lately.  He talks about packing bags and coming home.  We were feeling really upset about this, since we can't handle him spending the night at this point.  He is incontinent, we don't have a good set up in our spare bedroom, and he is awake most of the night.  In truth, he wouldn't want to stay for any length of time.  When...

For most of my life, I have been happy.  I'm a "glass half full" kind of person.  My parents were great examples of living life with a positive outlook.  But life is not always rosy; along with this almost genetic love of life, came the dark days of feeling overwhelmed by difficult times or circumstances. For the past three years, our little family has experienced so many of those dark days.  We have worked hard at seeing the good, being thankful for what we have.  Every day is a blessing.  It's pretty easy right now to keep that mindset.  Lacy is doing well in many ways.  He interacts, walks with assistance, enjoys people and good times.   Darker days will come. During the week between Christmas and New Year's Day, I read  Five Days Left  by Julie Lawson Timmer.  The book blurb reads in part, "A beautifully drawn study of what is at risk when you lose control of your own life."  Two characters' lives, loosely intertwi...