Keeping Hope Alive!

Although there are no comments on the new blog, I have received dozens of emails responding to the blog and Enews post "Great Expectations" from people around the country.
The responses have a consistent theme, that the message struck a chord for many, addressing feelings that are hard to talk about or acknowledge: - that people are struggling.....that they feel unsupported....that they feel alone and that no one really understands what it means to have a disability or to have a family member with a disability. Nor do people understand the great difficulty of maintaining perseverance and hope in the face of the challenges not only of the disability, but of the often hostile environment we live in.

Four themes came through the beautiful, painful, and hopeful responses I received:

WE ALL NEED TO FIND SUPPORT AND A COMMUNITY OF PEOPLE THAT CAN UNDERSTAND AND EMBRACE PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES!

WE ALL NEED TO GIVE OURSELVES PERMISSION TO FEEL TIRED, FRUSTRATED, SAD, ANGRY, OVERWHELMED, GUILTY, NOT GUILTY, FIND WAYS TO TAKE BREAKS, BUT MOST IMPORTANTLY, TO SEEK SUPPORT AND VALUE IT.

WE ALL NEED TO FIND WAYS TO SUSTAIN OUR ENERGY, OUR PERSISTANCE, AND OUR WILLINGNESS TO KEEP FIGHTING FOR WHAT WE OR OUR FAMILY MEMBERS NEED!