I am attending the conference for <a href= I am attending the conference for the Institute on Theology and Disability. This is a group of scholars, pastors, and other people with various kinds of interests in theology that has anything to do with disability. Their past presentations are viewable on their YouTube channel, linked above. […]
Posts in the chronic illness category:
chronic illness, conferences, disability awareness, disability ministry, disability studies, discipleship
ITD day 1
I am attending the conference for <a href= I am attending the conference for the Institute on Theology and Disability. This is a group of scholars, pastors, and other people with various kinds of interests in theology that has anything to do with disability. Their past presentations are viewable on their YouTube channel, linked above. […]
Travels 2023: ITD – arrival
I think I have followed the Institute on Theology and Disability since quite early in their online presence. It has been a dream of mine for quite some time to attend a conference and participate actively. In 2020, I had a paper accepted and looked forward to presenting. The conference was canceled that year because […]
Review: When Chronic Pain and Illness Take Everything Away
One of the most common experiences of people with disability or chronic illness is feeling intruded on by Christians who come and lay hands on us to pray for our healing without permission. Whether we do or don’t want healing, the problem is that people don’t enter our world to learn about the comples emotions […]
Gardening with Chronic Illness and Disability, Part 5: Caring for the Garden, Safety, and Resources
General care and safety are the most important aspects of my garden life. In saying this, what is uppermost in my mind concerning safety isn’t always the same thing as what is uppermost in other people’s minds. Other people are thinking about what things would be like if they suddenly couldn’t see. I am thinking […]
Gardening with Chronic Illness and Disability, Part 4: Choosing and Arranging the Plants
There are a million different ways to design the garden. Most importantly, what do you want to grow? This can be a hard question for a person who has never had much experience with plants. It was good, in that respect, that my mom simply brought me some easy starters to help build my interest. […]
Gardening with Chronic Illness and Disability, Part 3: Navigating in My Garden
Most sites I have read that discuss designing gardens for blind people encourage designers to install rails and all kinds of tactile pathways. The writing comes across as if the designers are sighted and the blind people are going to walk around smelling the air and won’t be doing much actual gardening. If you really […]
Gardening with Disability and Chronic Illness, Part 2: Planning the Garden
Planning Garden Layout The first thing that goes into planning my layout is to think about the space I have and where I want to b when I am enjoying my plants. Every space where I have lived already has plants in it, and most often I don’t go on a tour and find out […]
Gardening with Disability and Chronic Illness, Part 1: Introduction
In 2010, my mom bought me some flowers for my balcony, hoping that caring for them might help me to confront a bout of severe depression. I had no experience with gardening and, honestly, little interest in trying this project. But I couldn’t let good flowers die, and they were so pretty! So began the […]
A Week in the Life: Managing Rheumatoid Arthritis
I have spent most of this week on the phone with various people, organizations, and hold music, all with one goal: to get my disease modifying medication for rheumatoid arthritis. Here is a week in the life… Monday: Me, calling Medicare part D company: Hello, I was told to call once I had prior authorization […]
My Body, Disability, and My Self: A Complicated Relationship
I have been reading The Wisdom of Your Body by Hillary McBride (Brazos Press), releasing October 12. When I signed up for the launch team, I was not sure what to expect. Certainly I did not expect such a profound emotional journey into deep places I have not visited for a long time. I cannot […]
What Hospital Staff Could Learn About Communicating From Blind Patients
I watched an interview with a doctor this evening in which he said that one of the most difficult things for him about all the COVID cases was that his patients could not see who was treating them. My reaction was to feel anger at all the times Kevin and I have been in the […]
Monitoring Symptoms of Illness: Some Tips Based on Life with Chronic Illness
During the last few weeks, I have read a lot of articles about COVID-19 and have also read some posts from people who have experienced the illness. COVID-19 is not a predictable virus. Some people experience mild symptoms that resolve in a few days, and others experience a lengthy struggle with symptoms that seem to […]
COVID-19 and How We Grieve
One of the great laments I have read on social media concerns the impact of COVID-19 on funeral practices. Families will not be able to hold funerals for their deceased loved ones. In some religious traditions, the impact is deeper still than a funeral. I read a beautiful post from a nurse in Israel lamenting […]
Living Well with Illness and Preparing for COVID-19
Kevin and I have lived all our married life with illness somewhere in the background. On the Tuesday before we were scheduled to get married, he was admitted to the hospital, into a regular room. The next day, he was suddenly moved in the middle of the night and his food and water was withheld. […]
The Gift of Presence After COVID-19
Thinking about the things required of us because of COVID-19 is deeply difficult for me and my husband for many reasons. First, both of us are highly accustomed to greeting via handshakes, hugs, or a touch on the shoulder, especially if a person is upset. It may be easy to assume that this is because […]
The Land of Promise
When God called Abram, He said, “Arise and go to the land that I will show you.” No details were provided about how this journey would take place, where it would take him, how long it would take. It was simply a journey that would take him to a new land that would be his. […]
The Spoon Theory: Too Much of a Good Thing?
Apparently there is a new trendy term for people living with chronic pain. It comes from the spoon theory, which proposes that there is a limited amount of resources a person has for coping in a day and any number of things can exhaust those resources. Anything can “use up spoons”. It might be a […]
What Does He Do?
I have wrestled for some time with questions about how to address a topic that is near to my heart; and I feel that it is time for me to do my best with it, however it comes out. When I was in seminary, there was a great focus on women in ministry. I feel […]
Person-First Language: To Use or Not to Use?
I commented on a Facebook thread last night concerning the question of whether it was better to use the term “blind person” or “person who is blind”. I am both a blind person (or a person who is blind, if you prefer the term) and an academic writer. In the latter case, “a writer who […]
why cutting Social Security Disability Income matters to everyone
Last week, Congress passed legislation that will make changes in how the Social Security program is managed, resulting in as much as a 20 per cent reduction in income for people with disabilities who receive payments through the Social Security Disability Insurance program by the end of 2016. In case you are still thinking the […]
controlling allergens in the home
I spent an afternoon yesterday helping to claen my parents’ new house before they moved in. I took over a bag full of cleaners and went to work on carpets and shelves and bathroom, getting rid of dust and grime. All the work reminded me that I promised, a few weeks ago, to follow up […]
biblical studies, chronic illness, disability awareness, disability studies, healing narratives, ministry, prayer, theology
musings on the healing narratives
If a doctor can treat an illness, then why do we need Jesus? Perhaps it is a question worth asking. Is it just a matter of making a statement, of rejecting the world’s system for the Christian one? Or is there really a situation where a miracle can happen? Sometimes, it is both. It is […]
How do you do it? eye surgery, hospital, and oxygen, oh my!
Last month, I had surgery on my right eye to treat complications related to my artificial cornea. I traveled to Detroit for surgery with Dr. Michael Trese, who has treated me for additional problems with my retina in the past. The surgery is one that I will need repeatedly as long as I am able […]
thoughts on the spoon theory
A few years ago, a friend introduced me to a brilliant piece of writing, The Spoon Theory. At the time, I was a seminary student and had been recently diagnosed with an undifferentiated condition related to rheumatoid arthritis. I read the article and breathed a nice, deep sigh of relief. Somebody had figured out how […]
marriage tip for rough days
I am writing this afternoon while sitting in the kitchen, where I am watching two pots of food on the stove, Isn’t it interesting to note how life is full of paradoxes? A watched pot never boils, but you should never leave food unattended on the stove. Think on that for a while–but not too […]
narrative preaching about the hemorrhaging woman
When I preached about the woman with the twelve-year hemorrhage, I dramatized… I talked about her going to doctor after doctor, dealing with pain, etc. I said, “I got used to the pain… But I never got used to the aloneness. People stopped coming around because they didn’t want to hear it… I never got […]
thoughts on theology and the uncured body
I live in tension with many aspects of theology, but perhaps none more than prayer and healing. There is something in me that clings to health and will take advantage of every mechanism to obtain it. I have learned to temper this, to make reasonable decisions and not reach for just anything that promises health […]
“You haven’t let it limit you.”
“She hasn’t let blindness limit her.” This statement was recently written about me in an article that appeared in the local newspaper. A few days later, someone spoke the same words to me while discussing a potential speaking engagement: “You haven’t let blindness limit you.” I have been mulling over the statement since then, trying […]
wondrous things
I had an MRI recently which revealed that I have “shrinkage of both globes (aka the eyes). The MRI was done in order to evaluate potential causes of chronic headaches. The internnist does not believe the eye problem is responsible for the headaches; however, as a person who lives with a condition that often results […]
sound worship
Sound ministry… I am not talking about ministry based on sound biblical principles, though I certainly think this is important. I am talking about the ministry that occurs through your church’s sound technicians. If you send recordings to people who are homebound, offer them at a nominal cost to people who missed the service, or […]
meditation on a piece of choral music
Last week I went back to choir after numerous weeks at home with migraines and respiratory infections. One of the songs we are working on is called, “This Is My Word.” It is a very powerful song based on a passage from Isaiah. A friend, Marshall, is in the choir and is working on sign […]