Shout out to my sistah

I tend to blog in a fairly isolated way – I think stuff and then I write it down. Many of my fellow bloggers (who actually bother to read this blog – thank you!) are far more engaged than I am. The truth is, I do read what they write. I hop from blog to blog with curiosity, empathy and compassion. I am looking for the kernel of wisdom or the great tip or the smart mind that will inspire me to comment. But even when I find all of these things out there, I still don’t connect or engage. Or I do very rarely. Figuring out why is now added to my grand to-do list, somewhere below “get more sleep” and above “clean out playroom for yard sale”.

All of this lead up to talk about the one blog I do follow religiously and on which I sometimes comment: Claire’s blog. Claire and I share a path that few other of our fellow bloggers share: our children are severely disabled. Things like inclusion and school and friends and picky eating and inappropriate behaviour are not on our radar screens. Instead, we think about meds, nurses, suction, funding, quality of life, and quality of death. And we ask ourselves “when am I ever going to go on a real vacation?”, each of us knowing full well when that will be.

On the whole, Claire’s blog is thoughtful and intelligent with a large dose of folksy humour and whimsy thrown in. I’m sure she won’t mind when I say that I tend to skip over her musical interludes :) I was grateful when she separated out her mission to rid the world of the Ashley X treatment – gives the issue its own home (which it deserves), and returned her blog to a more personal exercise.

Claire – your candidness and generosity are inspiring. Best kind of blogger out there.

(photos: taken on C’s iPhone, using the Hipstamatic app)