Humbly Courageous

Hello and welcome back, or if you are new here, welcome to Humbly Courageous! The gift of movement. How often do you think about and appreciate all your body can do? All the little movements our bodies do that we may take for granted. Lifting your hand to your mouth to brush your teeth, eat, brush your hair, bend over to tie your shoes, sit up in bed, just to name a few. I haven’t always been so acutely aware and as grateful as I should be for the gift of movement that I have. Like most of us do, I took it for granted far too often.  You know the saying, someone always has it worse than you, be grateful! While this is certainly true, it’s not always helpful to say that to someone. But also, when soaking in the truth of that statement, if you are able, it’s really eye opening. The truth is, we all struggle in some way. Some days, months, years we are better equipped to handle our struggles, and sometimes they almost take us under and we feel like we are drowning. It’s easy to get bi...

Hello and welcome back, or if you are new here, welcome! I often feel like it’s hard to come up with the right words sometimes to talk about all the complexities of my thoughts I have surrounding my disability. That may surprise you coming from someone who has never known any different, but it’s true. Sometimes, I will hear someone say something and think, yeah that’s what I’ve been trying to say for years! It’s not that it’s some big huge earth shattering thing even, often just a simple phrase.  I was watching a show the other night, and one of the characters had a disability. She said something like, I’m always trying to prove to everyone around me that I’ve got this under control. I was like, yes!! I can totally relate. That’s what it feels like to me. I think we can all relate to that in some way. Often times, we go around and present our best selves, stuffing away all the ugly and hard right? We want those around us to feel like we’ve got this under control. Trouble is, we oft...

Hello and welcome back, and if this is your first time here, welcome! As a parent, I know I’m not alone in thinking that I have made a lot of mistakes, and have regrets looking back on how I’ve handled certain situations with my kids. I have one in particular though that breaks my heart, and I knew when I was making the decision at the time that I would look back on it, and it would do just that. Break my heart. Still, I felt like it was the best decision at the time. I was fortunate to work part-time when my kids were in elementary school. I worked three days a week and the other two, I used to take care of things I needed to get done, medical appointments, physical therapy, or to just give my body the break it was demanding. I was physically about as maxed out as I could be, with Jamie carrying me to my bed many nights because I couldn’t take another step. Motherhood is hard, and requires a lot of physical activity just to keep up. At my house, I cook all of the dinners, clean, and d...

Hello and welcome back, or if you are new here welcome!…..Deep breath this week, as we are diving into the emotional trauma of 47 years disabled… here we go with just a few examples. Sharing these are really hard for me, but I think it’s important to share because these things are not uncommon for those who are disabled. Some I’ve shared before, some I haven’t.  “Yeah, from the look of your profile picture you really look disabled 😂” There is SO much I could say to this. What does that mean? Am I supposed to look a certain way as a disabled woman? Please, enlighten me. I’m all ears.  Or how about the folks that left me on the floor of a bar/restaurant because they assumed I was drunk because I fell as I was exiting because the door swung the opposite of what I was expecting, so easily throwing me off balance. Had not had a drop to drink. Left me there, staring at me as if I was a zoo exhibit.  Even the manager came by and told me to move because I was letting all of the ...

Hello, welcome back, or if this happens to be your first time to Humbly Courageous, welcome! Life lessons. We all have them. We all have things in our lives that have taught us hard learned lessons. Often times, those things are the things we thought were the worst things to ever happen to us. When we look back, sometimes we realize that maybe they were there to help us, to shape our lives in the direction meant for our path.  My biggest teacher in life has been lengthy adversity. I’m only recently able to look back on my life, and really see that my lifelong disability has been my greatest teacher in life. It’s taught me empathy, patience, perseverance, how to cope with pain, how to fall and get back up again and again, how to live in the quiet and be content when the world around me is moving at a fast pace, how to appreciate the unique view from the sidelines, and how our hardships in life can be used to help others. It’s taught me that no matter how hard I wish something to go ...