One Foot In Front of the Other

Since I completed my graduate degree this summer, I've had more time to write.  Currently, I am working on an article about HD focusing on the personal experiences of folks I have met online and in my support group.   I'm trying to weave in information about HD, caregiver stories, family struggles and triumphs while also keeping my mind on my audience.  My audience is just about everyone since so few people know about HD.  Everything is tragic about Huntington's Disease, but within each of the stories is a thread of gratitude.  That is what is so amazing about the stories I have heard.  Yes, there is heartache, and sadness.  There is pain, unimaginable suffering and loss.  There is also thankfulness for every day. Of course, I am including our family's story within the article.  It's allowed me time for reflection. I'm of the age now when I admit I look back on my life a little more than I used to.  I think about myself as a young adult, newly married, and I

This is the beginning of a new school year and my 18th year as a teacher.  Each year, I pack my room up at the end of the school year in June, then unpack it again in August.  The upside to this is that I get to go through everything and make sure I really need those 15 rulers when I no longer teach math or science. Because my job is now primarily geared toward supporting classroom teachers, I made the difficult choice to give away some of my many, many children's books.  I didn't really need a classroom set of Horrible Harry .  So I have begun to cull through my many books and box up the ones I can bear to part with. Each year, I come across the one book I have kept for 47 years.  The paperback cover is bent and torn in one corner.  The pages have the delicacy and that browning around the edges that only comes from age and repeated readings.  Inside the cover is my fifth grade signature along with my address.  Even then, I feared someone would make off with my book and wou

Today I was talking with a colleague about her daughter going to pre-school.  This transition is going to be tough.  My friend talked about feeling emotional just labeling her daughter's supplies.  She's dreading the first day when she leaves her little one at preschool.  Already my friend knows she'll be mourning the end of the "little" stage.  She told me that she had recently heard someone say that as our children grow up, parenting is all about letting go.  We must let our children go for them to be their best selves. Letting go allows our children to grow and become stronger.  It also allows us, as parents, to grow and become stronger, too.  We learn that our children can navigate the ups and downs of life with varying degrees of support, eventually on their own.  This is what we want for our children.  This is what our children need from us. When my friend talked about letting go, my thoughts went to our family's situation.  We, too have had to learn