Columns

Starting a Small Business With SMA

In October, I fulfilled a childhood dream of mine by finally opening an online art shop. For years, friends and family encouraged me to do this. While I’m no Rembrandt, I have always enjoyed expressing my creativity in the form of drawings. Art is my…

Finding My Voice Within the Disability Community

I don’t prefer the phrase “disabled person.” It isn’t a go-to accessory item regularly pulled from my colorful closet of self-descriptors. Before we go any further, let me assure you: If you describe yourself in this way, I’m wholly accepting of you and your perspective. I welcome…

Being Thankful, No Matter What

It’s so much more than the turkey. Memories of childhood Thanksgiving gatherings with grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins take me to a happy place. My paternal grandmother, Mammaw, wearing white socks and practical black shoes, poured sugar into the bowl for cake icing while…

Ella Has Fun While Sheltering at Home

Ella, 10, the youngest of our three children, is thriving. She has friends from school, in the neighborhood, and online. She sings in a community choir, and occasionally plays with her siblings. Due to Ella’s disease, spinal muscular atrophy type 2, which directly affects her…

To the People Who Got Me Through This Year

If 2020 were a movie, it would have the aesthetic of David Lynch and the shocking twists and horrors of a Stephen King novel, and it would run the length of an unedited Peter Jackson epic. Viewers would yearn for a filmmaker like Wes Anderson to sweep…

I’m Disappointed, and That’s OK

Can I be real for a minute? Totally honest? Maybe even a little bit of a downer? I’m disappointed. 2020 was supposed to be my year. I had all sorts of plans — tattoos and writing retreats and parties, because you only graduate with a master’s degree and turn…

Putting a Different Twist on Thankfulness

Thanksgiving is almost upon us. Meals are being planned, and turkeys are being purchased. The delicious smells and flavors of pumpkin and cinnamon will be consumed in many homes. And, my favorite part, thankfulness abounds: Family, good health, the food on the table, and financial stability are commonly counted…