Happy National Nutrition Month! Every March, the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics encourages people to make informed food choices and develop sound eating and physical activity habits to be followed all year long. National Nutrition Month® started in 1973 as National Nutrition Week, and by the end of the decade, the weekly observance had expanded… Continue reading Fuel For the Future

What Are Developmental Disabilities? Developmental disabilities are a group of conditions that come from a physical, learning, language, or behavior impairment that manifests before the individual turns 22. These conditions usually last throughout a person’s lifetime and can affect everyday living. Recent estimates in the United States show that about one in six (17%) of… Continue reading Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month: Beyond the Conversation

Breaking Barriers That Prevent People and Communities from Thriving Social Work Month is a time to celebrate the life-changing profession of social work! The theme for Social Work Month 2023 is Social Work Breaks Barriers. Social workers choose this crucial healthcare profession because they have a strong desire to help empower individuals, families and communities.… Continue reading Social Work Month: Social Work Breaks Barriers

Here’s Why Music is the Universal Language This past autumn in that magical window of time before the weather requires multiple layers but after the leaves start to change, our family attended a festival to raise money to clean up the river that winds its way through our small town. The “Riverfest” was less than… Continue reading Music is the Universal Language

There were airplanes in primary colors on the walls of the developmental clinic. Red and yellow and blue and green planes that seemed to move the longer I looked at them. That’s what I remember from the day my son Charlie was diagnosed with cerebral palsy. It’s a trippy thing to process that kind of… Continue reading Medical Equipment for Disabilities: The Freebies Make All the Difference

PART 2: Afternoons As I described in the first part of this blog series, my morning routine is aimed towards being productive and intentional. Looking to years past, my midday routine has always varied based on my employment or athletic endeavors. Prior to my daughter’s arrival, which took place during the COVID-19 pandemic, I spent… Continue reading Living with SCI: Midday Routine

When You Need Group Support In full transparency, I’ll admit, early in my recovery I was not at all interested in attending the spinal cord injury support group that was offered every Thursday at my hospital’s community center. I would often boycott the mandatory powwow of fifteen, or so, attendees made up of mostly chronically… Continue reading Support Groups For Spinal Cord Injury

We Cannot Underestimate the Importance of Disabled Role Models for Our Kids I’m pretty good at being my son Charlie’s mom. I know the difference between his sad cry and mad cry, his happy laugh and jokester laugh. I know his favorite foods and can probably guess what he’d want to do at any given… Continue reading The Importance of Disabled Role Models

An Overview Of Our Civil Rights A few years ago I visited the San Francisco Bay area and Berkley, California, to film our Shield Healthcare video series, Mobility In The City. While there, I had the privilege of touring The Center for Independent Living, an organization that helps increase awareness, collaboration and opportunity among people… Continue reading Understanding the Americans with Disabilities Act

When my son Charlie was born, the primary thing I noticed were his eyes. They were technicolor blue like the kid from A Christmas Story and surrounded by a fringe of the longest lashes I had ever seen. I was so sucked into their orbit that I forgot to blink. When I did, I registered… Continue reading The Body is a Memory