Holiday Posts
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Emmanuel: Truth — Even in Chaos, God is With Us
Chaos, here we come. I’m out of my mind. I’ve officially lost it! “Chaos”, was what I thought this week when I scheduled a meeting with my developmental editor to go over a manuscript I’ve spent the past several months refining to (hopefully) make my debut as an author. That means dealing with chaos. The weather gets colder and messes with my body. Even when I oversleep on the day I’m supposed to meet my editor. I scramble to reschedule! I (barely) succeed. (Yeah, that happened. Not proud of it, but I’m offering transparency to hopefully make a point.) Holidays can mean chaos Chaos seems to reign at the holidays.…
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True Thanksgiving: Gratitude in Spite of Challenge
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True Thanksgiving: Gratitude in Spite of Challenge
Today marks a major American holiday, Thanksgiving, that is often overlooked or used as an excuse for excess. But for me, Thanksgiving has always meant something different. This year, I’m thankful, more than ever, for my family and my health. Health Challenges The art of Thanksgiving and being thankful is easy when you’re healthy. This year has been a struggle for me. I’ve talked on this blog at length about how my own stubbornness and fear led to an injury becoming worse than it should have been. I’m on the mend now, and I’m grateful to God for getting me through it. That alone is enough for me to have…
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Never Forget: Hope amid reflection on September 11
If you’re an American, today is a very somber day in our history. Most people in the United States remember where they were on September 11, 2001. I was sitting in a class at my middle school. I was eleven years old. Memories, or lack thereof There are certain things that I can’t remember or that my memory has changed over the years for reasons I don’t even know. For example, I don’t remember being told that the towers had been hit until my school day ended and my mom came to pick me up holding back tears. What I do remember: Psalm 23 by Jeff Majors playing in the…
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True Thanksgiving: Gratitude in Spite of Challenge
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Exploring True Freedom: Reflections on July 4th and Personal Struggles
Happy belated Fourth of July to my American subscribers! Yesterday was a pretty quiet day for my family. We’re fairly low key when we’re home for the Fourth. That is, unless we’re in West Virginia visiting my relatives who live in that area. Once again, my disability has been causing some issues. The wounds on my foot have healed, but I have an ingrown/infected toenail that I am squeamish about getting treated. (Bear with me, I’ll tie back to that in a moment with a disability anecdote. To quote Shakespeare [because I’m a nerd and I can’t resist the reference]: “Though this be madness, yet there is method in’t.” –Polonius…
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True Thanksgiving: Gratitude in Spite of Challenge
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What lies ahead: Looking forward to 2025…
We’re on the cusp of a new year. This is a time of hope and expectation. It’s at this point in the year that many people start making resolutions and plans. This is one of the most difficult things for me to do as a person with a disability. The biggest thing I have to do for myself in the new year is get myself together to publish my books. But I often don’t know what might get in the way of those plans. I could have a medical or financial setback. Something else could come up with my family. When I made the decision to invest in myself as…
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True Thanksgiving: Gratitude in Spite of Challenge
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“Make us truly thankful.”
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. As people around the world celebrate a day of gratitude, I pause to reflect on the things I am grateful for, and what is to come. One of the things I often struggle with as a person with a disability, is finding moments of joy in the times when I am at my lowest. I always tell people that I know things could be much worse. There are varying degrees of severity that come with Cerebral Palsy. They also come with a host of other medical issues. I know people who were born prematurely, like me, who struggle with worse health issues than I have. I’m grateful…
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True Thanksgiving: Gratitude in Spite of Challenge
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Remembrance and Honor
The image above pictures a woman laying at the grave of a fallen soldier. The text below the image reads: Memorial Day – In case you thought it was national barbeque day. For those of us in the United States, today is the unofficial beginning of summer, but it’s also a much more important holiday. Today is the day that we honor those who gave their lives in the service of protecting our country. As a person with a disability, I have a particular respect for those who serve. When I turned eighteen, I got countless calls from the Marines and Navy wanting me to enlist. {Of course, they were…
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True Thanksgiving: Gratitude in Spite of Challenge
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A Lot Can Change in Seven Days
I’m switching thigs up a bit for this week’s blog post. As a Christian and an author, one of the things that fascinated me about the life of Christ was how quickly people changed their minds about Him in the course of one week, which we now know as “Holy Week”. Most religious scholars agree that Jesus was on this Earth ministering to the people for three years. Many hold that he began his ministry around the age of thirty. But for me, it’s always been the final week of His life that was fascinating. I’ve always wondered about what happened during that week. How many people heard Him speak…
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True Thanksgiving: Gratitude in Spite of Challenge
