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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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What is Cerebral Palsy? Expanding knowledge of my own disability.
Cerebral Palsy. This medical term for this disability sounds a little confusing if you’ve never heard of it, right? After posing the question on my Threads account, I quickly realized that many people are not aware of what Cerebral Palsy is or how to recognize it in someone they see or know. (The latter part is a bit difficult, but I’ll address why in a bit.) What is Cerebral Palsy? A Definition Cerebral Palsy was defined by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), in a July 23, 2025 article as “a group of disorders that affect a person’s ability to move and maintain balance and posture.” There are many types…
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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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I trust the One who calms the waves: How a recent injury tested my faith and made me stronger
It’s scary to step out and do new, different things. I’m not ashamed to admit that it’s been hard, and that there are times when fear has gotten the better of me. I’ve openly struggled with my mental health in a way that’s been freaking me out a little lately, but I trust that things will get better the more I work toward what I’m supposed to do. Because I live with a disability that affects my feet, I find myself dealing with issues with them all the time. If it’s not my feet, it’s my knees or my legs in some way. I haven’t been able to walk since…
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True Thanksgiving: Gratitude in Spite of Challenge
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FaithFest 2025 still has room to improve, but offers hope in the midst of struggle.
If you know me, you know that my other great love, besides Jesus and writing, is music. This weekend I had the opportunity to travel to Wilkesboro, North Carolina for a Christian Music festival called FaithFest. If you have no idea what that is, allow me to explain. FaithFest is a two day music festival held in western North Carolina. Based in Wilkesboro, FaithFest’s open air venue is unmissable — you’ll know it when you arrive, because there is a giant white cross erected on the grounds. FaithFest is a great experience for Christian music lovers, and it does have some things I’ve never seen before I began attending. One…
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Remembrance and Honor
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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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Let’s talk about disability & visibility
So, as we head into the end of 2024, I want to let my readers in on a conversation I had with a friend who is also disabled. I was trying to decide what my final blog of 2024 should be, and she brought up something I hadn’t even considered. There’s a serious issue with people with disabilities being given the opportunity to exist and take up space in the world. Sometimes, all I want is to feel seen. That’s not to say that I don’t have people around me who do recognize what I try to do and give me support. I have an amazing community of family, church…
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True Thanksgiving: Gratitude in Spite of Challenge
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The benefits of rest
Sometimes, we all need to slow down and take a break. Recently, my disability reminded me of this the hard way – by causing a problem with a sore on my foot that became infected. One of the downsides of my disability is that I don’t have a lot of feeling in my feet. This often causes me to have sores or other issues without being able to feel them, or know how bad they really are. To my detriment, I’m also incredibly stubborn. I hate going to the doctor unless I absolutely have to. So when my mother dragged me to urgent care a few weeks ago, I was…
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True Thanksgiving: Gratitude in Spite of Challenge
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Maybe It’s OK (If I’m Not OK)
Trigger warning: Today’s blog discusses mental health issues and suicidal ideation (albeit without a plan to follow through). If you are struggling, please reach out for help. Resources are available at https://988lifeline.org . https://www.focusonthefamily.com/get-help/mental-health-resources/ also has help available. With apologies to We Are Messengers, I’m borrowing one of their lyrics for this week’s blog. “Maybe It’s Ok” was released in 2019 on We Are Messengers’ debut album, Honest. Darren Mulligan, the band’s lead singer, has talked about the story behind the song, and especially about how the song was written from a place of understanding that not everything will be roses as we follow God. In living with Cerebral Palsy,…
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True Thanksgiving: Gratitude in Spite of Challenge
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Thriving because of technology
Your life without a computer: what does it look like? Note: This was a WordPress daily prompt last week, but it was one that I thought my readers would be intrigued by, so I’m posting it a bit late. As a writer with a disability, I’d have to say my life without a computer would look bleak. Without computers, I wouldn’t have this blog. I also likely wouldn’t be a writer. Because of the nature of my disability, it is extremely difficult (though it has gotten slightly better after years of therapy and practice) to write by hand. My hands hurt even as I type, so I’d hate to think…
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Remembrance and Honor
Thoughts on Life, Faith, Disability and the Writing Craft from E.S. McLaughlin
