Salty Zebra

 Well, this is a post I never thought I'd be writing! I'm going to start with the backstory, which I didn't get until we were pretty far into this but which I think will help it be clearer for you to understand.  Evidently my nephew who lives in Tennessee has been up to no good. For quite some time he's been driving around baiting people of other races (he's white) with terrible racial slurs and trying to get them to fight him, presumably so he'll feel justified in shooting them. Yeah, that's pretty awful! He's been posting his shenanigans on social media, and while Facebook took his videos down, X has left them up for everyone to see.  As you can imagine, this has caused quite the backlash. People who are offended by his behavior and those that support it, have grouped together and continued the hurt and violence. The group in opposition to him decided that it would benefit them to post his family's names, phone numbers, and addresses on the interne...

  Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.   Ephesians 4:2-3  Seeing this passage transports me back in time to February of 2019. At that time, I was a part of a beautiful ministry at our church that had brought hundreds of people that wouldn’t have darkened the door of a sanctuary into a space where they heard about God’s love. The thing is, we have an enemy that doesn’t like such ministries and so he sowed seeds of discord in our church over it. A small, but vocal, group decided that what we were doing in the ministry (Christian Yoga) wasn’t in line with what they thought the church should be doing, and they actively, vehemently, went about seeking to destroy it. I talked with them, shared my teaching and lesson plans, invited them to sit in on classes, and at every step they agreed that what I was sharing was completely Biblical, and yet they continued t...

  Sometimes life isn't ideal. Let's face it, most of the time it isn't! So, we do what we need to, to make things work. In my "Making It Work" posts, I share life hacks and ideas that have helped me so that, maybe, they can help someone else too. I hope you enjoy!  Today's culture would like to have you believe that there are supports and accessibility options aplenty all around us. Many people I've spoken with have the impression that if you're in a wheelchair you get to skip the line wherever you go - especially in Disney parks. People have seen allergy information on menus, so most think that allergy friendly food is offered at most restaurants. The bad news is that just isn't reality. Yes, there may be options available, but it isn't likely that anyone will offer them to you. Yes, you sometimes get to skip the line, but that's only if you know to ask. And no, most restaurants are not  allergy friendly, and those that are usually only ha...

7:29am - Wake up and attempt to claw my way to consciousness, but failed 8:26am - 0.0/20 points Wake up and take my stability score. I check this each morning and it lets me know where my body is at and how I should pace my day. A 4/5 is pretty good! It is supposed to mean that I have been pacing well lately, and I have been. 8:35 - Actually get out of bed, Use the bathroom and brush my teeth. I used to brush my teeth after  breakfast in the morning, but since I've been wearing a retainer at night (the last seven years or so) I need to brush that and my teeth before I eat. 8:48 - 0.6/20 Fix coffee and breakfast then do my Bible study while I eat, or at least start it... 9:40 - 1.2/20 - Actually starting Bible study after being distracted 10:18 - 1.6/20 - Restarting my Bible study after being distracted (it's really hard to get things done with my husband around sometimes). Switched to the couch where I can sit with my back supported better now that I've finished eating. 11:...

Image Credit Canva Dream Lab  Congratulations! You've been officially deemed disabled. Welcome to a life of luxury and ease living off the government! Wait, you mean that's not the case? You're telling me I've been misled by the internet AGAIN!!!  Yep, hate to break it to you, but disability's not all it's cracked up to be! Turns out it's much  harder to qualify for this than you could ever imagine, and even if you do, you're not set for life.   Disability law has become big business in America. Why? Because nearly EVERYONE, even a paraplegic, is denied disability upon their first application. I say nearly because there are few exceptions that make the rule, but for the majority of people, even with a totally legitimate claim, they'll receive a denial. This has created a whole contingent of lawyers whose entire career is made up of helping people receive the disability benefits they need. I don't know about you, but that seems pretty messed up to...

Yet another post told in memes, not because it's funny, but because if I don't laugh, I'll cry... On a recent trip to Texas, I experienced several of the more "tropish" interactions of being an ambulatory wheelchair user and I thought I'd take the opportunity to share so that you can avoid making someone feel like I did. Ableism, it's a thing. It's real. People don't realize they have it. Educate yourself! "You're walking! It's a miracle!"   So, I'm sitting on the shuttle to the airport and my husband loads my wheelchair on. The driver looks around with a confused expression and asks, "Whose wheelchair is that?" I awkwardly raise my hand and he throws his hands up in the air and says, "It's a miracle!" I think he thought he was being funny. He wasn't. The reality is, if I couldn't get out of my wheelchair we couldn't use their service because IT IS NOT ACCESSIBLE. Shame on them, not on me fo...

   In case you didn't know, as I didn't until recently, May is brain tumor awareness month. I decided a while back that I would be honoring this month in a variety of ways, and as I was working on putting these wheels in motion, I also found out that May is Ehler's-Danlos Syndrome (EDS) awareness month AND Lyme Disease awareness month as well! Being that these are my three main diagnoses, I was pretty surprised to find that they all had the same month where they were highlighted. You'd think I was born in May, but I wasn't, I was born in July. At first I started to back pedal my brain tumor awareness agenda for my blog and Facebook, but then I began to feel more and more clearly that this year I was just supposed to focus on brain tumors, and so I will. Who knows, maybe next year I'll be highlighting Lyme Disease since that is the one I've written about the least?  Brain tumors are not as rare as you might think, and more than one million people in America a...

  “Come, let us bow down and worship. Let us kneel before the Lord, our Creator.”   Psalm 95:6  What does it mean to bow down to someone or something? I asked CoPilot and this is what it said: To bow down to someone or something can symbolize an act of profound respect, submission, or acknowledgment of superiority. It often conveys the idea of lowering oneself, either physically or metaphorically, in recognition of authority, greatness, or even divine power. This phrase can be used literally—for instance, bowing in front of a king or a religious deity—or figuratively, as in "bowing down to societal norms" or "bowing down to pressure," where it means yielding or conceding to something. The expression sometimes carries emotional or situational weight, depending on the context. It can reflect reverence and devotion, or it might signify surrender or defeat.   Often in life, we are compelled to “bow down” to people or ideas. In the portion of the story I re...

   This incredible trip has taught me so much, and I feel like I'm just beginning to unpack it. I'm certain that these lessons will overflow into future posts as well, but I wanted to give you an introduction to the  Community First! Village  here in Austin, Texas. As shared on their website: Community First! Village is a master planned neighborhood that provides affordable, permanent housing and a supportive community for men and women who are coming out of chronic homelessness. A development of Mobile Loaves & Fishes, this transformative residential program exists to love and serve our neighbors who have been living on the streets, while also empowering the surrounding community into a lifestyle of service with the homeless. This is the actual truck originally used in street outreach, now retired as a decorative memorial  This amazing endeavor began over twenty five years ago. As a part of their street outreach,  Alan Graham  and his partne...

Note: This is the fourth and final post in a series of posts focusing on the illegal immigrant situation in the US. While much of this is informed by my personal feelings and opinions, I do not claim to be unbiased, I have tried to share sources whenever possible. Please feel free to share with me your thoughts, but I ask that you would do so in love. Any comments given that are hurtful will be deleted, though they cannot be deleted from my mind, so consider our relationship when posting please.   Image courtesy of WikiMedia Commons  I put off writing this post, I think. It's the hardest one for me to write because the subject is so precious and therefore so scary to me. Today I'm writing about how illegal immigration affects children. One wouldn't think that it's a major problem, but the more I learn, the more concerns I have. And it's not just immigrant children that are affected, other children are as well. According to this article , nearly 150,000 come to the b...