The 29-Day Giving Challenge

I wanted to share a post written by Prill Boyle with you. The story of Cami Walker will give you much to think about.

To read the story, click here.

Allyn Evans
http://www.allynevans.com/

I'm Not Weird, I Have SPD

Today's featured guest is Chynna T. Laird. Chynna is the author of "I'm Not Weird, I Have SPD." To learn more about Chynna visit her websites: http://www.lilywolfwords.ca/ and http://www.lilywolfwords.blogspot.com/.

Enjoy her article posted below. We both love comments, feedback and questions.

My Sensational Child

When Jaimie was two-and-a half, she was diagnosed with Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD).

We were both relieved and frustrated.

Honestly, I’d never heard of SPD. I’d heard of Autism, Asperger’s and ADHD but not this mysterious SPD.

But we watched our daughter slowly slip away from us since she was three months old and knew something was wrong. She rarely slept, fought us with every simple hygiene task tooth and nail, spent most of her awake time screaming and refused our touch.

We couldn’t take her anywhere too busy/loud/smelly/bright/etc. or she broke down or froze. Her diagnosis was a relief, then, because we finally had a name for what Jaimie struggled with. But it was still a relatively unknown disorder so we couldn’t get the right support. That was the frustrating part.

Before the SPD diagnosis, we fought to have people listen to us…to see that what Jaimie struggled with was deeper than just her reactions to things or her overt behaviour.

Something in her tiny little body made her fearful of the world around her and we refused to accept that it was “normal” or “spiritedness” and there just had to be other parents out there like us wondering, hurting and researching.

A lot of people call SPD an “invisible disorder” because you can’t see it on a child’s face or body. The only glimmer that something is wrong is their reactions to people, situations, and events and that they often have to try just a bit harder to bounce a ball, play sports like stick hockey or ice skate or concentrate.

But Jaimie is real and so is her SPD. That’s why I chose to talk about our experiences with SPD—to reach out…to, maybe, help other families feel a bit better and less alone.

Since Jaimie was going for therapy, learning how to cope with her world and the people in it, shouldn’t those people in her world learn how to interact with her?

She’s like the other children around her in many ways. She loves drawing, crafting and going to the park. She loves swimming and playing with her siblings. And, boy, does she love learning. She just does things a bit differently. And that’s okay.

Jaimie is six-and-a half now and going into first grade in the fall. She still has a lot of the same struggles but she’s come a long way. What’s helped is the love and support she’s gotten from those around her. Knowledge is so important because it fosters understanding and that’s all we want for these children.

I may not be able to adjust the world to help Jaimie feel safe or hold her to make her feel better but I can teach others how the world feels to her and I can give her the tools to talk about it. After all, Jaimie is my sensational child—my miracle girl—and she’s not invisible and neither is SPD.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chynna Laird is a psychology student, freelance writer and author living in Edmonton, Alberta with her three daughters [Jaimie (six), Jordhan (four), and baby Sophie (one)] and baby boy, Xander (two and a half). Her passion is helping children and families living with Sensory Processing Disorder and other special needs.

You’ll find her work in many online and in-print parenting, inspirational, Christian and writing publications in Canada, United States, Australia, and Britain. She’s most proud of her children’s picture book, "I’m Not Weird: I Have SPD," which she wrote for Jaimie. In addition, she’ll have a memoir about raising a child with SPD out in August 2009 and a reference book about the Sensory Diet coming January 2010.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thanks to WOW! Women on Writing for providing the introduction.
http://www.allynevans.com/

email me!

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Our Truest Self: A Woman Who Chooses Her Thoughts and Feelings

Today's featured guest is Janice Lynn Lundy. Enjoy her article posted below. We both love comments, feedback and questions.

A Woman Who Chooses Her Thoughts and Feelings

On average, 60,000 thoughts a day run through our minds, most of them not of our own choosing. They are random thoughts. Thoughts about the past, overshadowed by worry or regret, or thoughts about the future, dominated by more worry or fear.

If we desire to live as our truest self, a woman who is naturally peaceful, confident, joyful, and loving, it is important that we develop a new relationship with our thoughts, as well as the feelings that accompany them.

We can do so by beginning to observe—simply notice—the content of these thoughts and where they lead us. We can ask ourselves: Does their presence take me into a greater daily experience of peace, love, or joy? Or do these thoughts keep me bound up in worry, self-doubt, fear, or lack? Then, because we desire to live in an enlightened manner, we pledge to redirect our thinking. This, in fact, is the third Transformational Truth of twelve in Your Truest Self: “I Choose Thoughts and Feelings That Honor My Sacred Self.”

To begin to track our thoughts, words, and actions requires one very important skill—the ability to access silence. It is impossible to get in touch with our thoughts and feelings if we cannot get quiet enough to listen. We must begin to clear out our mind clutter and create room for peace, love, and joy to dwell. For this very reason, periods of silence-infused solitude are vital to our life journey.

One of the most effective methods for working with our thoughts is through the practice of journaling. It is one of the best ways I know to look at what is being said within our mind. Journaling offers a powerful opportunity for self-reflection and self-correction. Once we have taken note of our thoughts, we can tell the truth about ourselves, and begin to remake our lives. We can set a powerful intention to live a new way.

The next step is to redirect our thoughts and feelings. We assess if we are living in alignment. Alignment is a state of being whereby our thoughts, words, and actions are “in sync,” each one in harmony with the other. Each builds upon the other to take us into an embodied experience of our truest self—or not.

For example, if we say we love others but speak badly or gossip about them, we are not in alignment. Our thoughts and feelings do not match our actions. In fact, they are a contradiction. If we say that we desire peace in the world but have feelings of anger, bitterness, or resentment toward others, we are not walking our talk. We are not in alignment.

We change this, we change ourselves, by noticing the nature of our thoughts, then consciously choosing only those that bring us into alignment with our highest desires—the virtues to which we aspire. This process is one of the highest forms of spiritual practice in which we can engage.

This is the call and the challenge being issued to us today. Are we ready to answer? I sincerely hope so, for when we take the first steps to live as the peace-filled women we are meant to be, the world itself will begin to change for the better.

©2009, Janice Lynne Lundy



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Janice Lynne Lundy is an inspirational speaker, interfaith spiritual director, syndicated magazine columnist, and the author of four self-help/spiritual growth books for women. Her newest book, Your Truest Self: Embracing the Woman You Are Meant to Be, has just been released by Sorin Books. She resides in northern Michigan.

Learn more about Jan at her website: AwakenedLiving.com.
Register for her newsletter and she'll send you her new, inspirational 90-page e-book, The Awakened Woman's Guide to Life. Visit her blog: www.awakeisgood.blogspot.com. She enjoys hearing from her readers and responds personally. Email Jan!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Thanks to WOW! Women on Writing for providing the introduction.
www.allynevans.com
info at allynevans.com

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Dare to Pursue your Childhood Dreams

I couldn't resist including this article (with her permission, of course) by Christine Louise Hohlbaum published in her ezine: Powerful Families, Powerful Lives. Keep reading, you'll see why....

"What Dreams May Come (True)"

Eleanor Roosevelt once said, "Do one thing every day that scares you." I don't think she was talking about cleaning out the shower drain when she said that. She was an advocate of character-building, a notable force at a time when women's rights were not what they are today.

Periodically, I measure my children's risk tolerance by asking them a simple question. "What scares you?" I typically get an answer about the boogie man who lurks in the dark or that German test coming up in school. But the other day, my affable nine-year-old daughter revealed an inner fear that surprised me. "I am afraid someone will get mad at me."

She'd rather do a ring-and-run by leaving a note of apology on her friend's front step than face the person head on. Her fear of rejection, a normal state of human experience, has come to pass.
Dreams can offset fears so, without trying to force my adult understanding of dreams on my kids, I also ask them what they would like to be when they grow up.

At present, my seven-year-old son would like to be a Judo master and a filmmaker. My daughter remains constant in her wish to be a riding instructor. They are too busy living their childhood to know they are also forming their dreams, the foundation on which the rest of their lives will be built.

Childhood dreams are the house where our souls reside. It is where we live in fearless possibility. It is sad to see paralyzing fear take over my kids, but it is also a necessary process for them to know what the opposite of fearless is. At age nine it never occured to me that I could fail, yet I see in my own daughter the belief that it might actually happen. I periodically get furious with the German school system that points out mistakes more than it celebrates what's right. At every opportunity I try to ask her "What was right about your day?"

What would our world be like if we looked towards the wins and used failure as a mere tool for course correction? What dreams may come true when we move out of burdensome fear and into the sparkling light of weightless courage?

Recently, I placed my hand into the grab bag of my dreams and pulled out "become an actor". At nearly 40, I giggled at the thought, then applied for the casting agency anyway. I promptly got two TV jobs in one week. It took a baby step to create a miracle. It wasn't hard, and it got me to thinking what other dreams I could fulfill.

What are your childhood dreams? Are you living them?

Do one thing that scares you today. It will broaden the circumference of your comfort zone just a little while creating another layer of miracles across the world. Your human potential is limitless. Reach for the stars, then tell us what happened! We'll be celebrating right there with you.

~~Christine Louise Hohlbaum, American author of the forthcoming Power of Slow: 101 Ways to Save Time in Our 24/7 World (fall 2009), Diary of a Mother: Parenting Stories and Other Stuff (2003) and SAHM I Am: Tales of a Stay-at-Home Mom in Europe (2005), has been published in hundreds of publications. When she isn't writing, leading intensive seminars or wiping up messes, she prefers to frolic in the Bavarian countryside near Munich where she lives with her husband and two children. Visit her Web site: http://t.ymlp88.com/bebaaauhuaiahjuafaubjs/click.php.

Allyn Evans
http://www.allynevans.com/
info at allynevans.com

Frankie's Mom: An Inspiring Story...

I'd like to introduce you to another guest. It's the story of Frankie's Mom and what they do together. Hope her story will inspire you. :)

FEATURED GUEST: Barbara Techel

My moment of truth and wanting to live authentically began painfully for me. But the good news is what blossomed from pain set me on an incredible journey.

My pain came from the diagnoses of terminal bone cancer in my 9-year old chocolate lab, Cassie Jo. She was one of the loves of my life. The news devastated me. After accepting her condition, my life took a different path.

A life coach helped me realize I needed to write about what I loved. You guessed it. I wrote about animals. At the same time, I decided to train my new lab puppy to become a therapy dog. I was excited to see where that would lead. And think of all the new stories I would have to write.

Pain entered my life again only nine short months after the loss of Cassie Jo. My six year old dachshund, Frankie suffered a spinal injury and became permanently paralyzed. I found myself constantly asking “Why”. I hate to admit it, but I did feel sorry for myself too.

But I took strength in what I had learned from Cassie Jo and knew I had to look for the blessing in the challenge Frankie faced. Once I surrendered, the answer came to me clear as a bell.

Frankie’s children’s book told in her voice was the answer. Sharing her story of walking and now rolling would help children facing their own challenges. We would teach them, through Frankie’s example, that each challenge is given so they can learn and grow. We would encourage them to look for positive choices. Frankie’s story not only helped children, her story healed me too.

Frankie was a natural with the children. While witnessing her work, I realized that Frankie had another role to play—therapy dog! My puppy had a long way to go before she could be certified, but not Frankie.

Forward Frankie and I rolled. We became a registered therapy dog team. Visiting nursing homes, hospital and hospice patients meant I was living with a newfound joy and meaning.

Living authentically does not mean you won’t face hurdles in your life. But for me, having a solid footing in who I am and who I want to be makes navigating those hurdles a bit easier. I understand each hurdle means I am being given a gift. It is a gift to grow and explore more of who I can become!

I give complete credit to my four-legged pals who taught me to pay attention to what animals teach us about life.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Barbara Techel is the author of "Frankie, the Walk 'N Roll Dog,” a 2008 National Best Book awarded by USA Book News. Frankie’s story is a true, inspirational story about the author’s dachshund. After suffering a spinal injury, Frankie was paralyzed. She is now custom fit for a wheelchair and has learned to keep on rolling. Barbara’s book has also been nominated by Dog Writer’s of America for the Merial Animal-Human Bond Award. Frankie was also recently nominated for the Wisconsin Pet Hall of Fame. Visit Barbara at http://www.joyfulpaws.com/ and watch Frankie’s inspirational video.

My Camping Lesson

First of all, I must say that anyone who knows me will know that this camping lesson has nothing to do with me. I turned in my camping shoes years ago and pledge to NEVER camp again voluntarily.

So, who is telling you about a camping lesson?

It's my featured guest, Linda C. Wisniewski. Linda wrote Off Kilter: A Woman's Journey to Peace with Scoliosis.

My Camping Lesson

We had an old tent in the basement, one I'd bought it when my son Aaron was seven. Over the next few years, we went on camping trips with other single parent families from our church.

Then I met Steve, and life took a new direction. We got married and, a year later, Matt was born.

We took family vacations but, until one night in July, the tent stayed on a dusty shelf. On that night, Matt was ten, and we had gone to feed the neighbor's dog while they were on vacation. We followed her up a hill, and saw a small tent pitched in the woods. I told Matt then about the camping trips I'd taken with his half-brother in the years before he was born.

"Could we get a tent, Mom?"

"We still have the one I used when Aaron was your age. Let's get it out of the basement."

Back home, we pulled the musty-smelling tent outside and set it up in the backyard. As the sun set, Matt hurried up to his room to get his pillow and blanket. We got out the flashlights, books and crackers for a bedtime snack in the tent. As we got ready, I became annoyed with Steve. He took no part in our preparations or excitement.

"You guys have fun. I'll just hold the fort in here and answer the phone if it rings."

Right. Why do I have to do this alone? Arenʼt we supposed to be a family? I shot him my disapproval with a look. By eight, Matt and I were ready. It was Saturday night on our country road. Crickets, frogs and owls made the only sounds. We closed our books, turned off our flashlights, and kissed goodnight.

"WE ARE FAM-IL-EEEE!" What was that? I lifted the tent flap. Somewhere to the east, dance music split the night. There was a party going on, and they were playing our song. We tried to sleep but it was just too noisy.

"I give up!" I sighed. "Let's go back in the house. We can try again tomorrow."

"Okay, let's see what Dad is doing." Matt helped me gather up pillows, books, flashlights and blankets. "Too bad it got so noisy out there," said Steve, munching on chips and watching the Yankees play a night game on TV.

"Can I stay up with Dad?" Matt was already snuggling next to Steve on the couch. "I want to watch the game."

It was late, and I was about to say no, but the sight of them together opened a window into my past, where my memory of camping with Aaron is stored. I saw that it was not the tent, but being together, late at night, that made the memory special. I thought of Aaron, now twenty-five and living his own life in another town.

"Sure, Matt." I smiled and raised my eyebrows at Steve. We are a family, even if we don't enjoy all of the same things. Baseball is not my sport, but Steve and Matt were about to create a summer nighttime memory of their own. I took my book to bed and left them to it.

----Linda C. Wisniewski is the author of Off Kilter: A Woman's Journey to Peace with Scoliosis, Her Mother, and Her Polish Heritage (Pearlsong Press, 2008).

She writes for the Bucks County Herald and teaches memoir classes for Bucks County Community College. Visit Linda's website: http://www.lindawis.com/.

Thanks to the editors of WOW for introducing me to Linda.

http://www.allynevans.com/, http://www.thealertparent.blogspot.com/

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The Grandparent Connection

Occasionally, I will be inviting featured guests to blog. If you'd like to be featured, please email me. To be included, your stories need to be inspiring and positive. I'm mainly seeking stories about how you started or how you managed to create a life you enjoy and are passionate about.

Please enjoy Guest Blogger and Author Gayle Trent...

Gayle lives in Bristol, Virginia with her husband, daughter and son. Gayle previously worked in the accounting and legal fields, and her last such job was as secretary to a Deputy Commissioner in the Virginia Workers' Compensation Commission. Though she enjoyed the work, it was a long daily commute and she felt she wasn't spending enough time with her family. Now she writes while her children are at school; and thanks to a crock pot and a bread machine, can often have dinner ready when everyone gets home.

Feature Article
After having children of my own and seeing my parents with my children, I'm inclined to agree with Bill Cosby who said, "These are not the people I grew up with! These are old people who are trying to get into Heaven!"

But does the "grandparent connection," i.e., the love, the spoiling, the attitudes, work the other way as well? Would a child treat a grandparent differently than he/she would treat a parent?

I asked myself this question one weekend as I was giving my eighty-six-year-old grandmother a makeover. Yes, a makeover. If you knew my grandmother, you'd understand. You see, Grandmother has not had a pie life. In fact, she's had more than her fair share of rough spots. Yet, through it all, she held her head up proudly knowing, as she'd so often been told, that she was one of the prettiest women in town.

"I used to be…." Most often a sentence that begins with those four words is tinged with sadness…a sense of something once treasured and now forever lost. "I used to be one heck of a ballplayer when I was in school," says the man in a wheelchair. "I used to be a seamstress and sew all my own clothes," says the woman whose hands are so arthritic she can barely move them. "I used to be the prettiest woman in Saltville," says my Grandmother.

She doesn't go many places anymore; but when she does, she wants to look nice. A couple of weeks ago, she was going to a church function so she put on some makeup. According to my mother, Grandmother's cheeks looked like they were flaming. At my mother's appalled expression, Grandmother asked, "I have on too much rouge, don't I?" She then went and washed her face.

I knew she wanted to look as good as she could. I also knew she'd forgotten everything she'd ever known about makeup. So I went out and got all the little goodies women love to play with—from moisturizer to lipstick—and I called and asked Grandmother if she'd like a makeover. Sounding as excited as a child on her birthday, she said she'd love it.

My mother was having a party on Saturday, so I went up an hour early to help Grandmother get fixed up. Again, I was struck by her childlike behavior—wide-eyed, obedient, trusting—as I treated her to a makeover. When I finished, she asked for a mirror. "This is not me," she said, at first glance. I thought she was disappointed until she elaborated. "I look beautiful." And she did. [The downside is that now she wants me to do her makeup when she's dead, but I digress.]

The entire incident made me wonder: Grandparents will go above and beyond for their grandchildren, but will the grandchildren return the favor when they're grown? It has long been established that as we and our parents age, our roles reverse. What of the roles of grandparents and grandchildren? Do the grandchildren go back and coddle their grandparents, or do they leave them by the wayside?

If, like me, you were given loads of love, called "angel" and taught the value of a Peppermint Pattie®, you should repay that love with love. If you were driven around on country roads in a Dodge Swinger® with the windows down while singing Broadway show tunes at the top of your lungs, you can at least brighten a day or two with a phone call or a card. And what harm would it do you to bring a smile to the face of someone who searched far and wide for the riding toy you rode the wheels off of?

If you only take, soon there will be nothing to be taken. But if you give, there will always be something coming back to you.
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About Gayle Trent:
Gayle Trent is a full-time author. She is currently at work on a new cozy mystery series involving her hobby, cake decorating. The series features Daphne Martin, a 40-year-old divorcee who has begun the second phase of her life with a new home and a new business venture--Daphne's Delectable Cakes.

To find out more about Gayle, visit her websites: http://www.gayletrent.com/ or http://gayle24202.tripod.com/. If you share an interest in cake decorating, please visit Daphne's Web site, available via click-through from either of Gayle's sites or at http://www.gayle24202.tripod.com/id9.html.

Murder Takes the Cake is the first book in the Daphne Martin Cake Decorating Mystery Series. Murder Takes the Cake was a semi-finalist in Amazon.com's Breakthrough Novel Award Contest."Yodel Watson was dead. And some people blamed my spice cake."When the meanest gossip in Brea Ridge dies mysteriously, suspicions turn to cake decorator Daphne Martin. But all Daphne did was deliver a spice cake with cream cheese frosting. And find Yodel's body. Now Daphne's got to help solve the murder and clear her good name. Problem is, her Virginia hometown is brimming with people who had good reason to kill Yodel, and Daphne's whole family is among them.-------------

Thanks to the gang at WOW! Women On Writing for introducing me to Gayle!

http://www.allynevans.com/
http://www.thealertparent.blogspot.com/