“Feed Your Porch Cats” is a Positive Mindset in the Toughest of Times

18 Apr
On one of my worst days this week, I dumped a scoop of cat food into the bowl I keep on my back porch. Hearing the clank of all the crunchy little pieces against the stainless steel, I felt valuable....
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My 12 Hacks for Attending a Professional Conference While Living with Invisible Disability

1 Aug
I avoid in-person trainings and especially conferences, because my chronic conditions make them quite uncomfortable and even agonizingly painful. I live with fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome, osteoarthritis and degenerative disc disease (with one terrible herniated disc named Larry), and...
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My livelihood caught coronavirus … and died from it.

13 Mar
I would rather have the coronavirus than have what it has done to me. I’m used to my body enduring illness. It’s my everyday life. Having something that’ll actually go away sounds nice. What coronavirus has done to me is...
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Art with Disability

8 Nov
My touring has mostly wound down for the season and I’ve been awarding myself a lot more time to do one of my favorite things: writing. I’m working on Splatvocate (the next Splat book, this time for advocates), but I’m...
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Travels with Chronic Illness, Chronic Pain, and Amica

19 Jul
Two days ago, my dog and I returned from a 10-week, 12,000-mile road trip across America. It was the greatest thing I’ve ever done in my life, absolutely. So many mornings I’d shove off from wherever I was, looked at...
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What My Aging Dog Just Taught Me About “No Going Back”

2 May
I’m a writer. I was six or seven years old when I started writing poetry and short stories. My greatest grief with my fibromyalgia is being robbed of time to be a writer because of fatigue and/or brain fog. What...
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4 Ways I Reset My Optimism During a Flare

26 Apr
I’ve finished a marathon. In the last 12 weeks, I spoke in 5 states: at 11 college campuses and 1 Native pueblo. I debuted a brand new program and customized existing programs for unique audiences, like non-native-English speakers and veterans....
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What Has Your Disability Done for You Lately?

12 Apr
Last Sunday, I spent the day in Brussels with two friends of mine from London, father and son, named Tony and Sean. How we met is a fun story. I found them in an Irish pub in Lisbon, Portugal, and...
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