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Chicago in Snow
- December 17th, 2007
I am in Chicago amongst a blanket of snow. This is the first time in distance memory I have seen a landscape like this so near to the 25th of December, ah the sweet warmth of southern living. No chance of blizzards of
ice and snow near my east coast abode. A scene I remember from my childhood but since growing up rarely seen or experienced in adulthood. Now while sitting in the “somewhat” warm home of my dear friend Lela and gazing out on this blinding stuff of white crisp frozen precipitation I am grateful. I am appreciative about so many people and things in my life today and it has moved me to write. Maybe that’s the holiday spirit creeping in on this recently battered soul……maybe it’s just being crystal clear about the moments or maybe it’s just the place I find myself right now. Regardless I am happy and have a sense of wonder that fits perfectly with the season.A season of hope and adventure is what I long for and one that I most certainly want to contribute to, professionally and personally. Hope for the State of Virginia to finally make honest changes that benefit people with disabilities instead of the incessant committee studies that produce no more than rhetoric and recommendations, but rarely any action. Hope for true human rights and a system that actually understands and supports choice by the people forced to deal with a system that offers little more than a five bed group home and a day center to waste the day in. And finally hope for the thousands that sit on a waiting list year after year seeing a glimpse of the inclusion that most of us can not imagine living without.
Recently a number of people with disabilities were asked what was the single thing they would like to change about their lives……..their answer is not new but worth repetition, friendship. People in their lives who care about them…….simple and in the midst of this season of gift buying, decorations and credit extensions, this is something to put on your list that’s absolutely free, the gift of friendship, taking the step towards the reduction of loneliness, not just for people with disabilities but for all those left on the sidelines. This is an adventure worth going on……one that holds surprise and optimism, as well as good cheer. Tis the season after all.
So today with the cold and the ice I will keep my heart warm and expectant, I will anticipate the excitement of real change and I once again I will commit this soul through the uphill but worthwhile journey of being what I want from this world.
5 People had this to say...
AMEN. Although such a word may or may not be defensive to the writer who is so good with words and has such a gift of reflecting what we all so very much wish for. The “gift of friendship”…..once lost, one truly realizes how very much they once had. Just not sure how to even begin to get a piece of it back, therefore I wish you peace.
Lynne! It was such a wonderful surprise to have found your newest blog entry. I’ve been dropping by regularly and though your last post was great it can bear reading only so many times!! May I commit with you, pledge to be the change and encourage it in others. There’s no better place to be than at your side on this one.
Dear Lynne and Hope House Friends, It must be the fact of growing up in all that Chicago snow that I can think of no more magical setting, one that inspires warmth, compassion and hope, than that white stuff turning the hard edges of a bustling city soft in a matter of minutes. Now far away from both Chicago and its snow, I truly miss it. However, its friends, like those of Hope House are never far from my heart. Now, as this new year begins and with friends at our side, I do hope that we continue to find that surprise and optimism as well as the courage and strength to continue to make this a better world for all.
Then of course there’s bummers like me…..It is my hope that 2008 will be a year in which philosophy and reality will be more than mutually exclusive; a year when the terms “high functioning” and “low functioning” will be banned from the disabilityspeak lexicon and acknowledged for what they are: mean-spirited, exclusionary and ultimately useless and while were at it throw out the whole “lexicon”; a year when it finally sinks in how easy it is to waste the lives of others with our lack of urgency and our exhortations to “be patient”; a year when bureaucrats are obliged to live on nothing in substandard housing at the behest of some other cog while their pleas for something better go unheeded, so they can see how their politics of inaction really feel; a year when we stop lying to ourselves and start telling the truth: it’s all about the benjamins. It’s on! Peace and good will to all. nd.
I say let the snow fly and the cold crack across the sky, because Lynne’s heart fires will melt them all down to the core and expose what our disabled friends really want: friendship according to some but love according to all. So here’s to Lynne’s dreams coming true for 2008, when love is the ability that everyone has. Lynne Seagle ROCKS!
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