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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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Visibility, Disability, Acceptance: Rejecting the labels
I almost didn’t make a post today, because my topic is too close to my blog subject of disability. I didn’t quite know what to say or how to make a post on this topic. As an author and blogger who works to bring awareness to disability, it’s often hard for me to find the words to express my experience. You can read more about who I am and why this particular blog is so important to me on my About Me page. Visibility matters. Disability is a part of me. It’s a part of what led me to take a chance on becoming an author. I’ve blogged in the…
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Remembrance and Honor
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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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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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“My Complex Relationship With Disability, Representation And Healing Made Me Shift Perspectives. But Are We More Accepting Now?”
My relationship with my specific disability diagnosis of Cerebral Palsy has always been tumultuous at best. Most people who know me personally will tell you I am one of the most joyful people they have encountered. Church people tell me that I have what they call a “sweet spirit” or that I’m strong because I deal with such a challenging life. I live with my aging parents, spending most of my time in my room typing blogs or editing my novel. We have a van, but I still rely on them to get to appointments or places because the paratransit in my city is unreliable. (That’s something I will discuss…
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True Thanksgiving: Gratitude in Spite of Challenge
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Faith over Fear…Defining and Utilizing Faith in the Everyday
As a Christian, I’m taught to choose faith over fear. Sometimes, faith isn’t what we believe it to be. As someone who lives with a disability, there’s a lot of fear that tends to try and creep into my life. Fear that my disability will get worse. A worry that I’ll end up alone. The voice that tells me that I’m too held back by those things to really make the calling that I believe God has on my life stick. I’ve been feeling a lot of these. I’m a currently unpublished author, in the weeds of editing my first novel in a series. I also live 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
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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
Thoughts on Life, Faith, Disability and the Writing Craft from E.S. McLaughlin
