Leisa A. Hammett

Whitney Houston's Death A Reminder of Our Humanity

 

Saturday, much of America apparently perched on their couches and watched Whitney Houston's funeral via television or live-stream internet. The Facebook community was stacked with commentary. Though I'm not a fan of celebrity, I believe in the importance of knowing the pulse of popular culture. And, I admired Houston's flawless beauty and incredible voice.

But, many of the comments emanating from the ethers of Facebook seared my spirit. Our culture is so quick to elevate. So quick to tear down. We deify our celebrities, causing us to forget the reality of their humanity. Blinded by the spotlights and sparkle of fame, we choose to hold them higher than our own selves and also from our media tethered perches, we impose upon them impossible standards. And, then, we crucify them when they fail, all the while forgetting that they are just like ourselves. Human. Vulnerable. Fallible.

I love my alma mater--a small Baptist, East Tennessee college, which, when I attended, had a student body less than 2,000. A former campus minister from those days posted on his Facebook wall a tribute from a D.C.-based Baptist Pastor, Elizabeth Evans Hagan, who pens a blog entitled Preacher on the Plaza. This exceptional young woman, who was born two years before I graduated, wrote in a post published Saturday, "Whitney Houston Took Us to Church." She noted that the televised experience demonstrated how (my words) real church, loving church, can hold space for, among many things:

"Those who have made some bad decisions in their life (i.e. Whitney) being celebrated for the good within them, not the bad because hey, we have all messed up in one way or another! (Who are we to throw stones?)"

I take it a few notches further and choose not to even label her choices "bad" or "messed up." Stay with me here a moment....In the recent events in my own life, culture would clearly entitle me to brandish labels of "messing up" and "bad." Instead, I tongue-in-cheek classify my experiences as "less than optimal choices." For, all our "bad," "the messy," the "less than optimal choices" hold great power to help us  WAKE UP! And CHANGE! To do differently whatever is not working in our lives. Houston had that choice and I do not condemn her for not going there. It appears she had great remorse and that she tried and her decisions were branches in her journey....

In our cultural iconization of celebrity, we forget that like us, they, too, are on a Journey. The. Same. One. As. Us. AKA: Life. And what we all need for ourselves and for our lives is...The "C" word. The biggie. The one of which we have in such short supply in our current culture: COMPASSION.

The loving tributes that resonated with me throughout the week were those that bestowed this compassion. As Spirit Coach and friend Gregory Fisher noted about Houston's interview with Oprah approximately three years back, she got a glimpse of her power if maybe only for a brief while. That power that, again, all of us, as creations of God, have in common--personal, God-given power. Also like myself and so many of us, she also forgot that she had that power within. And you know the rest of her story, which ended in her tragic, premature death. What would the rest of her life had been like if she'd lived on like the greats of her sisterhood, such as Aretha Franklin who graced Houston's funeral? We'll never know.

But...what we can take away are the lessons that in her/our shared frailty, we have a connection to a divine, strengthening source within us. And that, again, compassion--what the world needs--starts from within our own human hearts. Those human hearts that beat together in our global world....Furrowing her brow, leaning over and lowering her voice--meaning serious business--Mother would say to me when I was growing up, "When you point your finger at another there are four pointing right back at 'cha." So, in our rush to judge--which means me, too, here--we forget that we have and that others also have thumping, human, life-blood-coursing hearts that desperately need the resicutation of love, kindess, understanding and compassion.

Thump-thump....

I believe NOTHING. Nothing is ever in vain. Houston left her earthly life of pain for someplace better. Her death, however, holds lessons for those of us who remain behind....

Telling the Truth About Deen's Sugar-Coated Lie

The hoo-la over the diagnosis of the Queen of Fat & Sugar, Culinary Marketing Guru, Paula Deen, with Type-2 diabetes has simmered down a bit in the last week. I guess. At risk of sounding self-righteous: I really don't know because I rarely flick on the boob tube and best I knew, the controversy was never reported on my only news source, NPR. It was the blogosphere that tipped me off to the mean and nasty fest that was broiling over Deen's diagnosis. Talented blogger, special needs dad Rob Rummel-Hudson (Schuyler's Monster: A Father's Journey with His Wordless Daughter) posted on Facebook that making the Savannah-based Diva the butt of jokes was in poor taste. But via local Nashville fitness blogger Dyan of Don't Diet, Live It! that I learned the distasteful back story....

Dis. A. Point. Ing. Very.

From the headlines I expected a reformation. A new movement. I imagined the lives of foodie followers led down the table runner to salvation with Deen seated at the head teaching new math with a division of loaves and fishes and reversing her condition. (It is done. It is possible. I've witnessed it multiple times.) A reformed sugarholic for nearly 25  years now, I was excited, enthusiastic, as I clicked the news link, anxious to savor the details. Maybe this will be a wake up call for America's choice-ridden slide into obesity, I fancied. But. No. The scoop is Deen has known for three years about her diagnosis and sidles up to the public now with the endorsement of Big Pharma--Novo Nordisk-- a company that manufactures injectable diabetes meds. Her two sons, who do not have the diagnosis flank her as company spokespeople....Dialing up the heat of insult, Deen states in all seriousness:

She does not plan to limit her dietary excesses except her propensity for sugar-shocked, Southern tea. Writes "Coach Dyan" who watched Deen perform in a media circus parade, including The Today show: "She does not plan to change her lifestyle or cooking style[....]She said that she, like all other baby boomers, must face the reality of developing diabetes, heart disease, and high cholesterol."

There. Someone said it. Deen vocalized the sentiment of too many Americans. Descending into old, decrepit age, chock full of prescription meds and frequent consultations with allopathic medical doctors is just. The. Way. It. Is. Disease Rules.

Not.

Why am I passionate about this? Am I trying to pick at Paula? No. But I will speak the truth of my experience here. This mentality, as spoken aloud and lived by Deen, is a very real, negative reality in our culture today. But, I have chosen and live and believe in an alternative reality where Choosing Health Wins. As a young post-college adult, I began eating poorly, indulging in fat, excess sugar and fake foods. By my mid-20's, I developed a host of annoying gastric and transfered conditions. My trips to doctors became routine. By the end of that decade I was diagnosed with heavy metal poisoning, chronic intestinal yeast, chemical sensitivities and chronic fatigue syndrome. Eventually I found the ways of Western medicine and synthetic pharmaceuticals made me sicker. I quit listening to standard medicine and went the way of the quack, as our culture considered natural and alternative and diet-based medicine back then. Now? Science has proven those weird ideas...that too many in our culture still consider foreign. In one year I cured my chronic fatigue syndrome and heavy metal poisoning with the help of innovative, open-minded medical doctors in Atlanta, where I was then living. By first changing the content of what I ate, I immediately saw results in my weight, hair, skin and nails. I ate then and now a whole foods-based diet. Real. Food. Fruits. Vegetables. Whole grains. Some dairy and some quality meats. Organic as much as possible and lots of pure water. I have my dark chocolate and I drink wine on occasion. And if I let off the lid my sugar tooth will still rule. So, yes, those who know me have seen me big at the party buffet. The contents of my pantry? As pristine as a health food store.

My journey to whole food led me not only to whole health but to yoga and then to environmentalism because I saw how I ate affected how I treated the earth and in turn the earth's ability to sustain humankind. I learned as my mind cleared and my body cleaned itself from the inside out, that it is difficult to be fully conscious when I crammed fake stuff that my body could not process. And that clarity, slowly over the next couple of decades led me to a wider more inclusive spiritual path. In my experience, one led to the other, all so beautifully connected. I am so grateful for the journey that started with getting sick from a contemporary American diet and has served by body, mind and spirit so well the two ensuing decades.

We do have a choice about our health. And making a choice for optimal health is particularly important if you, like me, are a special needs parent. How can I meet the lifetime demands of my differently abled daughter if I am not preparing my body to sustain the long journey ahead? I do this--I eat pure the majority of time and I excercise regularly first for me and my quality of my Life. And then I do it for Her and any other loved one that may be in my life at a given time. And then, I do it for Us. What our culture is failing to realize is that WE ALL pay when some of us choose the path of disease. All of our costs go up. Preventative medicine via preventive diet, the bountiful foods of Mother Earth, are mighty cheap in comparison.

My Truth: Eat Well. Eat Real. Eat Whole. And do not accept that doctors, disease and decrepitness are the future. You bet the hell I am not. Make that I'm choosing the heaven of living well. Diss Dean and preventable disease and follow the path toward health. Quality lies there.

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What Deen's not taking into consideration with her refusal to change her diet and simply take medication: According to Mayo Clinic those with Type 2 diabetes may feel fine at first in the early stages but complications include: heart and blood vessel disease; nerve, kidney, eye, foot damage; skin and mouth conditions, osteoporosis and Alzheimer's.

Monday Morning Addendum: below, I've added three comments. The longest one shares two aspects of clarification, including more of my recent journey here for greatest authenticity. Thank all you who've visited here already this morning!

Divorce 2.0

...This is the blog post that once upon a time I dreaded writing. Back last early June when I moved out of the house I shared with Husband 2.0, I dreaded the thought of coming here and posting this very personal and once very painful news. And then, over the months as I began the process of actively healing, the time that I shared it here could not come soon enough. Not all of the dread of sharing this very intimate bit of news here has dissipated. It's just that Life has gone on in many respects and I've been eager to be authentic here with you, my readers. But paperwork and circumstances beyond my control caused a wait of at least five months before my second divorce was final.

Now I'm not proud to say I've been divorced twice. Oh. No. Nor to share it here. I am living testimony of the culture of today. You know, the voyeuristic, tell-all, tweet it, post it on Facebook, blog about it culture. I've engaged in it readily because this is part of my Art. Without regret. Writing is how I express myself. And to be a writer in the thick of contemporary culture, well, online media is where it's at. I shared here about "The Boyfriend" of three years, who became "The Fiance" and then whom I wedded, making him "Husband 2.0." So, in the spirit of authenticity and of closing this painful lesson-chocked chapter of my Life, I'm sharing this news with you--as soon as I could do so officially. Yes, there's been a hell of a lot of inferences here to divorce and something deep and kinda dark going on in my Life since early May. (And then the day after we went to court to stand before the judge, uncontested, I made a passing reference. January 14 marked 90 days, when in the state of Tennessee, a divorce claim, once filed is official, if uncontested.

The essence of my lifestory to this point, the one I aim to share here and in my books is that it is not what happens to you, to us, to me, but how you, we, I, choose to react to it. Hey, Life Happens. Substitute the second word in that sentence if you like. But even then, perception is up to the individual person living it.

I won't write any gory details here. In my moments of negative fantasies--which usually seem to happen in the shower--I'd post shitty stuff on Facebook. But that is not who I am. And that would not serve anyone--me, Husband 2.0, or you--the reader. I know that I get back what I put out. And I want positivity in my Life. And while this divorce is completely different than the one from Grace's father--The Wuzband versus Husband 2.0...hey gotta have some fun with it all, eh?--overall it has been conducted peaceably. And, I still maintain that is so the way to go if at all possible and I believe it is possible more often than not.

If you've really grasped the essence of what I write about here, what threads through my posts about Life and disAbility again and again, you know that I value a sense of personal Spirituality. That I believe Life is Good. Maybe I've not been so clear that I also believe that there are no mistakes. Okay, I'll concede... maybe...sometimes..."less than optimal choices." But there's that Choice word. And then there's the Perfect word. Something I write about a lot in regards to my daughter with autism. What if it's all Good? What if it's all Divinely Perfect? Perfectly Imperfect? I do believe it is....

The last year-plus was one hell of year.  I turned 50. I remarried. I turned 51, I got divorced again. And in the process, a very integral part of this picture, which I have written about frankly, my last remaining parent died. As I wrote here and here, I could not see some of the patterns that I had unconsciously created in my Life until my father died. His death was a HUGE wake up call. And, I believe that Life gives us those calls and they get louder and LOUDER until we really, really hear them. Until we "come to" and listen.

I believe that sometimes painful things in our Life have to come about to propel us on to our Greatest Good. I'm propelling. Very much so. And I look forward to sharing with you where I am going.  Stay Tuned. I'm wincing now and then, but I'm excited about my New Life ahead. 2012, bring 'er on!

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As of midnight Sunday, I have eliminated the "Journey with Grace" blog category "Marriage 2.0." This is a personal decision I've reached after much thought. None of the posts in that category will disappear from this blog as they were placed in one or more categories upon their creation. 

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"Disappointment to a noble soul is what cold water is to burning metal; it strengthens, tempers, intensifies, but never destroys it."--from Eliza Tabor

Take Note: Southern Light Photographers

A visual feast that promises to touch the soul of the viewer plus--what opportunity (and fun):

Copyrighted image, "Savannah Canopy," featured in exhibition, by extraordinary South Light photographer, Nick Dantona.

One of Nashville's finest art galleries and a personal favorite, The Arts Company, introduces a two-month celebration of photography featuring the eight "South Light" photographers of The South Through Eight Lenses & A Code. Accompanying the exhibition is a "Salon Saturday Festival," featuring special photography events; expert panel discussions; a master class presentation by photography legend, Sylvia Plachy, including a street photography excursion; a juried portfolio review that morphs into its own exhibition within an exhibition. All will be part of the Festival activities during "Salon Saturdays."

In addition, the 21^st Century technology of QR Codes will be incorporated into the photography exhibition. Show visitors will be able to scan Quick Read Codes with their smartphones and bring to life a deepened understanding of the images before them. These images may be documentary, landscape, portraits, or even abstract constructs of the Land of Dixie, but each one will reveal a secret about itself. Pretty cool, huh? Oh, I love this city, it's photographers and other artists!

Our Differences & "What Others 'Think'"

Today's usual Wednesday "Autism/DisAbility" blog entry is posted over at imamomtoo. Please click over and read my take about taking responsibility for our own feelings when we "think" others are staring at or judging our children with autism (and other disAbilities). Not cooking and got some holiday lull? Then leave some comment love over at Meghan's, will ya? Thank you! I'll be back on Thursday with a short, contemplative holiday wish and a beautiful piece of art for you. Bye-bye!

Recap: Fall Break Pilgrimage 2 Grayton

How rude. Monday's here and Grace is back in school and Life dares to return to..."normal." Especially rude in that last week was our luscious fall break. It was my fourth fall break pilgrimage to Grayton Beach, the sweet little state-park-protected area of Florida's South Walton region.

Though the Gulf Coast region of about which extraordinary blogger Megan Jordan of Velveteen Mind* deliciously writes is along Mississippi and New Orleans, the lovely pictured in her words begged to be shared here. The befuddled photos--with their online  display and clarity issues here, argh, are mine:

"Cool breezes don’t begin rolling off of the Gulf of Mexico until well into October, but at the first demure nudge of cool, we know what to do.

"Nothing compares to walking barefoot on cold sand, white caps building on the Gulf behind children running along the shore, salt infusing everything. No one saying “stop.” October comes and we finally, finally, fall back in love with our beach.

"Collect fragments from the water, make up stories about where these bits of treasure came from, and run until we collapse. The sand is so cool, so soft, a dream. Fall arrives and sweeps us away on flights of fancy."

Me: Grayton Beach is Old Florida, see below. And Hibiscus B&B owner Cheri Pebbles, makes sure of that. She is an integral part of this relaxed, down-home, welcoming community of kindred spirits. This year, she opened Studio 30A in one of the property's cottages, featuring Allison Craft Designs, named the area's Artist of the Year, 2012. (I'm blessed to own a small leather and pearl necklace.)

And no trip to the area is complete without a bike ride alongside 30A and a long soak of Seaside ambiance:

I traveled with an artist friend who, like me, has no dance-floor inhibition. Extraordinary local talent Dread Clampitt provided the theme music for the week. We needed at least two more days....Break is over. Today is Monday. Rude reality bites. Wink.

Thank you Jobs 4 Ur Gift to Art & Autism

We interrupt this previously scheduled ArtsFriday post here to mourn the loss of Apple/IPAD creator Steve Jobs who, Wednesday, surrendered in his long battle with pancreatic cancer.      

Jobs was a creatively unlimited visionary who made Art. One of the many current, fascinating cultural shifts happening in our troubled, often frightening-and-rapidly-and-confusingly morphing contemporary world is, at last, an increasing recognition of the importance and value of Creativity. And like that shift, we are seeing more clearly that creativity is NOT limited to making music, designing something visual, writing, acting, dancing...all the usual subjects featured here on ArtsFriday at "The Journey with Grace." Steve Jobs was a designer. He was a creator. He was ridiculously Creative! (And one hell of a manager! Which also takes creativity!)

And thus enters the Autism connection. See the video below about how Apple as a company was surprised how its' ingenious creation of the IPAD helped our special needs community. Yeah, the video is a bit of a rah-rah promo, but the first time I watched it, I cried when I listened to this mother's testament to how the device transformed her family's life. (I seem to be writing a lot here lately about things that are making me cry. Heh.) If you wish to skip to the part featuring how the device is helping individuals with autism, slide over to minute 3:42 where a big guy-senior Apple VP goes all warm and fuzzy talking about IPAD uses that are "heart warming."

 

My daughter Grace is one of an increasing number of individuals on the autism spectrum who has an IPAD. In a very short time this tiny, portable device has transformed the ability of so many like her to communicate with pictures and sound. The autistic mind is very often an extremely visual one. I can be Charle Brown's teacher ("Wah-wah-wah,") but with the quick, convenient push of a few buttons, show Grace a picture of her chore schedule on her IPAD and how I want her to empty all the condo's trash cans, and man, she's on it!

Steve Jobs: thank you from the bottom of my special needs mother's heart. I am Grateful for myself and for the benefits to my community. Here's a google search on autism and IPAD uses, should you care to explore further, dear reader.

So, has the IPAD helped you and your family?

"What the Zuck?" As-BERG-er's & Facebook At It Again

Insomnia is not good. Mix insomnia with a smart phone? Double not good. Twice last night I was peering into my tiny device (so much so, my hand went numb holding it in the air). All the buzz on Facebook, of course, was that it's creator, Mark Zuckerberg, was about to toss our cyberworlds upside down again. By the time I finished reading about the impending changes, I was a tad nauseated. Get a life, you say. Get off Facebook. Many are threatening to do just that....

BUT, you see, we creatives, us authors and others embeded in our evolving world of communications, are tied umbilically to social media. By true necessity of our times. It can make us or break us. If an author ignores social media...Toast. I'm watching it happen to a friend of mine now who's coasting, expecting their publisher to do all the work. Great book, but Stephen King this author is not. Authors must work and prospective publishers do take just that seriously into account. Along with numbers and likes and stats. Sick. I'm sick at thought of more work. As if keeping up were not enough. Not to mention feeling three years behind because I keep hitting the walls of my own technological ignorance.

The latest creation of the Mighty One of Social Media is that our new Facebook profiles will be a compendium of our lives. A scrapbook timeline where we post photos of ourselves as babies, bare chested and our bottoms swaddled in diapers, along with all other life-time milestones we deem important. The geeks among my friend base were already creating theirs. Grumble.

How old is this guy? And all this posting and scanning and yada-yada come naturally. To Some. I'll save the whining about my age and getting out of the traditional workplace just as the PC revolution burst into reality and being a single mother and....Good Lord, this stuff takes time. 

But, if you're a Geek, you love it. Ack. My October, 2010, "Journey with Grace" blog post reviewing "The Social Network," the movie based on Facebook designer Mark Zuckerberg, and spectulating that he has Asperger's was referenced in this Psychology Today blog. (The author agrees with me.)

For those peeking into "Journey with Grace" via Facebook today (Welcome!) Asperger's is a form of high functioning autism. The reason I believe some people react so negatively to speculation that Zuckerberg, Microsoft founder Bill Gates and *the late great pop artist Andy Warhol, just to name a few contemporary figures have/*had Asperger's is because their understanding of the syndrome is limited. Their understanding is barricaded by the perception of "disAbility." People with Asperger's (or any disAbility) are not broken. They are just different. And sometimes differently gifted in some very publicly beneficial ways.

But then back to the ways in which Zuckerberg is evolving and thus we will also be evolving on his Facebook creation....I cyber-snapped at a dear second cousin in the wee hours last night when I read how she liked the coming Facebook changes but could see how her mother--my first cousin--less than 10 years my senior, would be calling, pleading for help. There is a digital divide, I reminded her. Younger people raised from diaperdom with computers for breakfast just don't get it. Case in point was the rude lil' waitress at Carrabba's who howled on with belly-shaking laughter when she walked up on my conversation with a 83-year-old family member just as she had asked me: "What is Facebook?" "That's the funniest thing I ever heard," crowed the waitress unkindly. My stern look, my attempt to explain to her the realities of the digital divide never seemed to sink in with her. In the end, I think, only, she got the message that we were not happy with her. This new profile page and relearning something from a site that asks us constantly to relearn things that are not second nature to those of us over 40, is going to baffle folks all the more.

And, do I/we want to make available that much info about ourselves for all the world to see? Yes, you can put up filters, but many of us get friend requests (future book buyers) from people we do not even know--asking us to "be their friend." And, our personal business pages (which I've never gotten around to fully fleshing out, like so many other technology to-do's) are getting the short shrift, in the meantime, because of the new annoying, constant, dizzying, left-hand columned ticker-tape parade of posts.

I speculate that once again, in his lack of Aspergian theory-of-mind, young Zuckerberg thinks that we all will delight in making the time to round up photos and scan them into our computers and post them for everyone to see. Not....Go ahead. Call me Scrooge.

Others are saying some of this more persuasively. And one of them is blogger Amanda Pagliarini, from whose post, "What the Zuck?" I borrowed a portion of this "Journey with Grace" post's title. We are being led in this social media phenomenon by a person who has social deficits (and many brilliant assets). And as I'm increasingly reading and hearing from people regarding Facebook--and I'd say all social media--we are becoming less personal and less sensitive and, as some are also saying more navel-gazing. But our profiles? Well, ain't they pretty. Even if only we see them.  

Here's my original post about Zuckerberg & Asperger's: [Comes back with supposed link and reports (seriously)] Guess what? do-do-do-do...It's no longer there! It's gone missing. Huh? Typepad, I'm filing a Help Ticket....But you can find it at Autisable, where I also blog about autism. And there, it's gotten 27,000 hits (Thank you!) and it's share of unkind comments. (Oh, well.) (And agreements!) (And, blush, I've not gotten down to that little 'nother important to-do to reply over there. Oops. To my credit, the kind folks there found me on Twitter back when I began blogging late 2008 and auto signed up my blog .) I did run the post again in January, on "The Journey with Grace" when The Social Network garnered a Golden Globe.

Another Anniversary

As you know, it's been an anniversary week for our Dear Country. A painful one. Like you, I indulged in some tender time travel. Again, on Tuesday morning I found myself paging and pondering through the memories of yesteryear. And then, it occurred to me. No wonder. No wonder--because two years ago, 9/11 was also the date that our book was due at the printers.  We had padded our timeline so it was cool that we didn't make that date. But I remember it well. I got rear-ended by a sweet, young Episcopal priest that afternoon while driving Grace home from high school, where she was a freshman. While we waited and waited for the cop that never bothered to come, the kind, apologetic young man and I talked shop: the church and autism. I went the drive-thru on the way home and mindlessly consumed a hamburger, fries and a Coke. Huh? (Not in my usual culinary fare.)

Yesterday, for some reason, I called up our book's website, (thank you Misty Galyon!) and virtually thumbed through Rebekah Pope's beautiful pictures of special souls. I flipped to "Our Creative Team," pausing on each beautiful, smiling face--captured in Rebekah's beautiful, crisp black and white portraiture for which she is so gifted. Visually, I caressed each member with the fondness of my heart-felt love and bottomless appreciation....Together, two years ago this fall, we did this:

I'm proud. And, now, for the next chapter!: Tomorrow, my book mentor's in town from the fabulous far flung Portland, Ore. I'm not enrolled in MTSU's Writer's Loft this semester, but I'm still working with Charlotte Rains Dixon. (She's available for coaching and FANTASTIC!) So, I "hit the book," again next week: The Journey with Grace. Keep reading here and wish me a huge dousing down pour of heavenly inspiration.  And, thanks so much for your support via Facebook, comments on the blog here, (more, more, please!); plus your kind and thoughtful email responses to me.

Almost forgot to mention that I'm also pulling back on track, with some techno-learning-curve help along with some friends to birth that aforementioned FREE e-book in the meantime. Woo-hoo! (Or, Choo-Choo, here I come! And, yes, I know I'm corny. Blush.)

So: What creative projects are you proud of and what are you working on, dear readers? Tell me, tell me!

Summer Soul Connection

“To make the right choices in life, you have to get in touch with your soul.  To do this you need to experience solitude, which most people are afraid of, because in the silence you hear the truth and know the solutions.” --Deepak K. Chopra

My hearing's been muddled the last four years.  So, this summer, I'm re-connecting with my soul, listening in and reacquainting. As a result of many changes in my life, I've already--temporarily--been blogging less, down from three weekly to twice--Tuesday and Thursdays, generally featuring one autism/DisAbility and the mixxing it up on art and All the Rest of Life. There's already been a lot in the later category, sharing passages gifted to me by the Universe in a time they were/are much needed. Thank you for your continued reading and your gracious, affirming support these last nearly three years since I've launched "The Journey with Grace" online. In the fall, I'll resume work on my next book, by the same title. And back to blogging here per usual.

Always: IGBOK. And, Namaste.

Photo: LeisaHammett.com, copyrighted, Boone, N.C., 2009