I have often advised people against purchasing smart glasses because, in my thinking, all of the things that can be done with smart glasses can be done with the mobile phone or in other ways. So why spend the money on another device? I have recently had an experience that has completely changed my outlook. […]
Learning From My Younger Self
I read a lot of posts along the line of “things I would say to my younger self”. I have never read anything about what we could learn by spending time with our young selves. Maybe it would be useful.So often we think of life as something that moves forward, and so we had best […]
more reflections on ITD
I had this great idea to do daily blogs on the ITD conference. It didn’t happen for a variety of reasons. I’ll try to do a little reflection for now. The truth is I will be thinking about this for a while. On Tuesday Hans Reinders spoke about the situation regarding L’Arche and Jean Vanier’s […]
On travel while at ITD: reflections after day 1
My dog continues to act like a travel guru who has had thousands of hours of travel even though we spent two and a half years doing nothing but doctors’ offices after our first academic conference. Perhaps going out of state to the eye specialist has its advantages. I brought a roll-up dog bed, and […]
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. […]
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 […]
Job Descriptions, Inclusivity, and Equity for People with Disabilities
October is Disability Employment Awareness Month. October 15th is traditionally White Cane Safety Day. This is a day that should bring awareness to the importance of the travel ability and needs of all people who are blind. This is important because it has to do with how we get to work and the increasing role […]
Traveling without a Guide Dog: Experience with Cane and Walker
Earlier this week I fell and fractured my heel. I am using a walker during my recovery and my dog guide is on vacation. That is background for this post. I have written a lot about my travels with dog guides. This week I feel it is important to write some things about how we […]
Disability and Church, Intersection
I hope people who read my site will take time to watch this. The disability community is diverse in many ways and disability intersects with other identities that a person holds. I believe that you will learn a great deal from this webinar, and from others in the series. https://youtu.be/EQ_8KbhRvDQ Disability and Church, Intersection
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 […]
Grammar and Style Resources for Writers
In a follow-up to yesterday’s post on writing resources, someone asked on Facebook what references I use for writing style. My answer in general was that it depends heavily on the writing project. My first resource is the publisher’s own guidelines. Each publisher may have its own requiremente regarding writing style; and those are the […]
Recommended Resources for Freelance Writers
This post and the forthcoming post on grammars and style guides are updated from posts made in 2016.< The previous posts have been removed. Someone recently asked for my recommendation regarding the best resources for beginning freelance writers. I sent a few suggestions via email but thought that a post is in order in light […]
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 […]
Testimony, Interrupted
Kevin and I were friends for many years prior to our marriage in 2012. During the last few years he visited me several times in Indiana and went to worship with me at Park Place Church of God. I began uploading recordings of services to our Dropbox account so that he could hear the services […]
Reflections on Life with Blindness, Independence, and Expectations of the Sighted Community
Reading a recent reflection from Connor Scott-Gardner on thoughts on blindness after blogging for 11 years made me think about my own experiences and reactions. I once wrote quite prolifically about my thoughts about blindness but have been rather quiet in recent years. Perhaps it will be useful for me to write something in response […]
Encountering Jesus in Gethsemane
I sat alone in my dorm room, weeping and wondering what I would say if anyone found me and asked what was wrong. The truth would have been that I was upset because my companionship was rejected, and I didn’t feel that I had the right to be upset. I felt that I was simply […]
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 […]
Blindness, Aging, and the Importance of Knowing Our History
In the blindness community, we spend a lot of time talking about our achievements. Most often this means acknowledging the development of braille 200 years ago, acknowledging the founding of whichever blindness organization we are part of, and discussing the contribution of whatever blindness organization we are part of to the passing of historic legislation. […]
Doing Exegesis Without Biblical Languages
Someone asked me, “How can I do good exegesis if I don’t know the biblical languages?” This is a good question, especially since many seminaries are no longer teaching biblical languages. I will begin by saying that it is good to recognize that the languages are important, even if you don’t have the opportunity to […]
A Tribute to my Black Cats
My multicolored cat, Kira, is the kind of cat that catches people’s attention whenever they come into my house. She gives a friendly meow and sits up on a table or the grand piano to greet you. Even those who don’t really like cats think she is pretty. Those who like cats give her lots […]
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 […]
Book Review: Freedom to Flourish
Recently I was gifted a copy of Freedom to Flourish by Elizabeth Garn in exchange for a review (honest of course). Elizabeth and I became friends through a group that connects women who have been to seminary. Our backgrounds and work are somewhat different but it is a joy to fellowship and especially to read […]
On Faith and Prayer
I have been having a number of conversations about faith lately. They all come to one center. I can’t live a life of faith in God and at the same time plan as if God might not take care of me. I have wrestled for most of my life with the concept of what it […]
My Dog Is Not Your Friend
Now that we are all vaccinated, my husband and I went with a friend to have dinner at a restaurant tonight. We were not surprised when we had to wait to be seated. We were surprised by two things. One was the number of people who stopped on their way to the courtesy stand in […]
By Faith and Not by Sight
It may be tempting, when seeing this title on a blind person’s blog, to think that this post will be about something inspirational based on life as a blind person. Blindness gives us great opportunities to live by faith since we cannot see, right? Certainly this is a great idea; but it is a misinterpretation […]
What I Learned From My Asian Students
The scene: A group of Asian students sit on couches and chairs, most of which show damage from a recent monsoon. The group is mixed gender and the students range in age from late teens to early 50s. On one couch, two young ladies flank an American female. In the middle of the room is […]
Reflective Practice in the Biblical Language Classroom: A Personal Experience
The scene: A professor sits in front of a computer. Two textbooks are open on the desk beside the computer. A sticky note is attached to one text that says, “Student A loves this.” A sticky note is attached to the other textbook that says, “Students B, C, D, E want this.” Much discussion and […]
Losing the Lecture Guilt
The scene: A professor sits at a desk in front of a laptop, wearing headphones. A high-tech microphone sits on the desk to the left of the laptop. The laptop screen shows the time of an audio file: 18 minutes and 35 seconds. When I began teaching Hebrew online, one of my first questions concerned […]
Don’t Disconnect in the Connected Classroom: Inviting Students into Your Virtual Office
The scene: A person stands at the kitchen counter, a spoon in one hand and a cell phone in the other. A child stands at her side, pulling at her skirt. Her cell phone hand reaches to toss the phone on the floor. How many times should a professor send an email when a student […]
Connecting Digitally with Every Student
The scene: In a classroom, students at the front of the room sit up attentively. Students at the back are checked out. One plays a game on a phone. One draws on paper while the professor looks at her expectantly. The way in which professors communicate humanness to students makes the difference in whether we […]
Walking on the Water of Grief
In Mt. 14:22-36, Jesus comes to the disciples walking on water. This is an amazing thing; for who can actually walk on water! Peter, ever the one who wants to be just like Jesus, wants to try this out. Jesus encourages him to go on and try; and Peter does. But of course he becomes […]
The Heart of Confession
Jesus knew that Peter would deny knowing him… Was it because Jesus had some amazingly prescient knowledge of what was to come? Or did he have wisdom about what humans do when in severe distress? He had been in other situations in which people’s family refused to tell the truth because it meant associating them […]
A Lament for Music
I don’t like to talk about things I am not doing because of COVID. I prefer to talk about how I am keeping busy, how I am staying ok. It’s much more constructive. But it isn’t always true. Last week, I loaded up the church livestream on YouTube, and they were singing. Not only were […]
Qualitative Research: A Book Listing
Recently a question was asked on Twitter about qualitative research classes. My reply was that I knew nothing about classes but that I had references and would be happy to post. Qualitative research is used in many disciplines. It is a way to gather sevveral types of data that can provide information about what one […]
The Porch Conversations, #2
Today’s topics: some thoughts about the value of stories Kevin goes from “I will never live in Indiana” to appreciating Indiana hospitality. feelings about disclosing blindness what happens to the world when people stop driving “I could never sleep to the sound of…”
Porch Conversations – Inaugural post
Kevin and I discuss sun rooms, the ways that blind people read, the definition of home, and how to honor history when the historical markers have disappeared. Listen to the Porch Conversations.
My Experience with the QBraille XL
I recently had need to replace my VarioUltra 40 braille display, and I chose to purchase the QBraille XL from Hims. If the blindness organizations had conventions in person this year, vendors would be there with displays and show them to people who wanted to see them before buying one. There are no in-person conventions, […]
Reading Resources for Disability Awareness, Ministry/Theology, and Reconciliation
A friend asked me recently if I had a recommended reading list about disabilities. The 30th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act is on July 26, and I want to give readings that provide a broad perspective of disability history and why people with disabilities remain so passionate about civil rights today. I have […]
Arrival of Cat Daddy
Today is the eighth anniversary of Kevin’s first day in Anderson as a resident. We were talking this week about what a hard week it is in terms of remembrances. Just before Kevin arrived in 2012, my retired dog Meghan crossed the rainbow bridge. The next year, Loretta went to live with her retired family […]
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 […]
Recording Music in the Place of Darkness
In the early 2000s, I was struggling with underemployment, chronic respiratory illness, and severe depression. I thought about what I could do to encourage others; and I decided to produce a CD of my original music. I also decided to digitize my original recordings that had been made on four-track cassettes for the sake of […]
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. […]
God My Refuge and the Man Born Blind
My introduction to biblical studies did not come gently. My parents did as much as they humanly could to provide me a Bible in a format that I could read; but in the 1980s braille Bibles were costly and hard to store. Individual hard-bound volumes cost $40 each; and 18 of them were required to […]