During the hardest years of my young daughter’s life, I often wanted to be somewhere else. It’s not a proud thing to admit. It’s just the truth. It was hard to watch her struggle. To not know how to make her life easier. To watch other kids seemingly learn with ease. It was hard to […]
Category: Learning Disabilities
Learning To Be Quiet
This morning we had my daughter’s accommodations meeting for school. That’s the yearly meeting where we look at her accommodations that are in place due to her learning issues. She’s in 7th grade now, age 14. My job is to not talk. To let her answer for herself. To listen. I listened pretty well this […]
Take In The Sky
I’m eating ice cream in my office. I have never done this before. Indulged, alone, during the work day, with ice cream. I mean, I’ve indulged with cheese puffs and chocolates, but never ice cream. I’m at a lull in work, two assignments handed in, waiting for edits. Six stories to research, at the very […]
Dirt
Grace Grace Grace Grace Grace The word sits in front of my work desk, pushing me to offer myself the grace that I extend others. Already the day heats up. News from Liz’s choir director, sad my gifted singer is opting for swimming instead of the stress of a large group choir. Minutes later the […]
Our Song
Our Song by Nancy Schatz Alton Your blossom into speech is slow. Your smile covers every inch of my skin. You reach for my hand as we walk. How long it took to meet someone who I felt no need to give words to. You’ve taught me silence, how it’s enough to hold our wishes […]
Re-frame
I want to write in the third person to get some distance from my flaws. I want to believe Madeleine L’Engle when she writes that our flaws will get us through. I want to tell you that my youngest donned a helmet and a harness and climbed halfway up the rope ladder and almost made […]
Learning to See
I see the picture of the girls’ choir on their weekend trip and my insides lurch with an ache that’s familiar as my daughter’s profile. My girl didn’t go on the choir weekend. We paid for the trip. She never really wanted to go. We planned and plotted and called it scaffolding. The day before […]
This Is What You Came For
This Is What You Came For For the call from the accident claim office. To repeat the accident scene. Again. When you don’t want to talk about it anymore because you know the acidic bile in your stomach will churn and rise again. This is What You Came For In Capital Letters. in lowercase letters, […]
Strong
Strong By Nancy Schatz Alton She’s sure so often now. Flashing behind us: nights spent wavering wavering with me figuring out how to lead. There was a sweetness in the wavering: our limbs tangled together as we slept as soon as I gave myself over to her need. Now she dances in the living room […]
Memoir Pages
Remember when I promised that I’d occasionally drop some pages from my work-in-progress memoir here? Well, here you go. Enjoy and have a good weekend. I can’t cry all day. I can’t start in the morning. Or maybe I can start crying in the morning after everyone has left the house. But how to stop? […]