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I loved taking a deep dive into Alice‘s lived experiences, perspectives and work in disability advocacy, she embodies the fierceness of a Tiger.
The only complaint I had was that there were a lot of photos & graphics throughout & the audio made reading the physical copy a bit sleepy as descriptions of those pages were given.
All in all well worth the read, for currently disabled people & temporarily abled people alike.
Just living your best life is a form of resistance.
What else can we do? How do we love and hold each other up so we keep on going as a community? How can we harness our imagination to create the world we want to live in right now and in the future?
Oh I always do!! Mission accomplished!! 🤪🙃😜
Disabled people belong in the future. We‘re gonna resist as much and as hard as we can.
I see the future as a time when we critically need solidarity with one another. We need to show it. We need to really understand that asking for help, needing help, is not a weakness. I think the only way we can survive is if we truly believe and practice that we‘re in this together.
“……I hope that people realize that, for many of us, we have always been here, we have always survived. And in many cases, we have the solutions.”
There are so many of us who live in non-disabled worlds, who are incredibly, innovative, creative, and adaptive, and there‘s so much wisdom now by disabled and sick people about how to slow down and make things more flexible that I wish people paid attention to.
Being vulnerable, as well as honest, is the key to collective liberation.
“What do we leave behind when we are gone? Perhaps one part of my legacy is how I cherish the legacies of my loved ones…….Loving fiercely is real-time legacy building. Maybe that‘s the best way to honor people.”
Just a couple quick questions for you all!! 🤔❓💭
Nurturing life requires care and connection. Like an orchard in full bloom, nurturing stories stories requires care and connection, too. The people we love who are no longer alive—are still with us, and our stories about them are seeds planted with gentleness and hope for the future.
Freedom to live in the community is a human right.
One day, everyone will truly belong.
Many of us know the safety net has gaping holes and the state will not save us, so we‘re going to save ourselves with abundance, wisdom, joy and love.
Vulnerable “high-risk” people are some of the strongest, most interdependent, and most resilient people around. We may still face significant disparities in political power, which result in being left out of policy making, but we know how to show up for each other. Disabled communities, queer communities, and communities of color have been hustling and providing mutual aid since time began.
Adaptation is care work. Adaptation is survival. Adaptation is a negotiation between the past and the present. Adaptation is a science and art. Adaptation pushes boundaries and creates new futures.
There are days when I want to put this on repeat: “Believe disabled people. Period.” I refuse to apologize or feel shame about the way my body works or how I navigate the world.
This is the experience of living in a world that was never built for you: having to explain and defend yourself while providing infinite amounts of labor at the demand of people who do not recognize their nondisabled privilege.
Who are nerds if not those left out, ridiculed, neglected, and undervalued by dominant society? Who are nerds if not those who embrace difference, seek community, and support the powerless?
There‘s something incredibly affirming about seeing yourself reflected in popular culture. In the science fiction, fantasy and comic book worlds, we may identify with characters like us, characters unlike us, or characters we want to become.
It‘s been such an epic week for book mail!!
Monday: June BOTM box!! Do I know any Littens who are my box twins this month?
Wedsnesday: my first pack from my libraries‘ “Books by Mail” program AND a FB marketplace win for the Divergent series!!
And today, FINALLY, a Mercari miracle: The first three books in the Empyrean series!!
2025 will be the year of the series, stepping out of my comfort zone as a reader.
Cannot wait!!
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"When you are your own best friend, you don‘t endlessly seek out relationships, friendships, and validation from the wrong sources because you realize that the only approval and validation you need is your own."
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one‘s lifetime.”
“How can I be substantial without casting a shadow? I must have a dark side too if I am to be whole: and by becoming conscious of my shadow I remember once more that I am a human being like any other.”
~ C.G. Jung~
You‘ve got 21 days to determine what will get (at minimum) 25 minutes of your attention on June 25th!!
Do you already know what you will be reading? Tag it!!
Let‘s start getting excited about this now!! Why wait?!?
Also, in grade school do you think our teachers gave us more than 25 minutes of reading time, exactly that, or less?!?
#Read25Day
Beneath the surface of the protective parts of trauma survivors there exists an undamaged Essence, a Self that is confident, curious, and calm...
A Self that has been sheltered from destruction by the various protectors that have emerged in their efforts to ensure survival.
Once those protectors trust that it is safe to separate, the Self will spontaneously emerge, and the parts can be enlisted in the healing process.
When you‘re tired, go slowly. Go quietly. Go timidly. But do not stop. You are tired for all the right reasons. You are tired because you‘re supposed to be. You‘re tired because you‘re making a change. You are exhausted for all the right reasons and it‘s only an indication to go on. You are tired because you‘re growing.
“The distance you put between places doesn't change the distance you have to travel inside. No passport, no plane ticket, no new city can fix what must be faced within. Growth isn't on a map — it's in the moments you finally meet yourself.”
“Half the world is composed of people who have something to say and can't, and the other half who have nothing to say and keep on saying it.”
~Robert Frost~
“Nothing is so strong as gentleness. Nothing is so gentle as real strength.”
~Ralph W. Sockman~
"Determination means to use every challenge you meet as an opportunity to open your heart and soften, determined to not withdraw."
~Pema Chodron~
Pain is meant to wake us up. People try to hide their pain. But they‘re wrong. Pain is something to carry, like a radio. You feel your strength in the experience of pain. It‘s all in how you carry it. That‘s what matters. Pain is a feeling. Your feelings are a part of you. Your own reality. If you feel ashamed of them, and hide them, you‘re letting society destroy your reality. You should stand up for your right to feel your pain.
People are afraid of themselves, of their own reality; their feelings most of all. People talk about how great love is, but that‘s bullshit. Love hurts. Feelings are disturbing. People are taught that pain is evil and dangerous. How can they deal with love if they‘re afraid to feel?
I usually do not read books in a series, but being that there is a hockey team theme involved in these, I was immediately intrigued!!
Already had Beartown from my parents and today kicked off a new week on a high note completing the set with the second and third book!!
If I read these and the Empyrean series before the end of the year, I will have completed my first two series of books ever at almost 35 years old!!
“I‘m a writer, and everything I write is both a confession and a struggle to understand things about myself and this world in which I live. This is what everyone‘s work should be-whether you dance or paint or sing. It is a confession, a baring of your soul, your faults, those things you simply cannot or will not understand or accept. You stumble forward, confused, and you share. If you‘re lucky, you learn something.”
~Arthur Miller~
“Trees are sanctuaries. Whoever knows how to speak to them, whoever knows how to listen to them, can learn the truth. They do not preach learning and precepts, they preach, undeterred by particulars, the ancient law of life.”
Sometimes I wonder why I spend the money on these book boxes with the rising costs of everything these days especially and usually not reading through all five books each month before the next box comes, but then I remember that when I‘ve had a month like the one I‘ve had and learn that I can‘t trust people to care about me or protect me, I can trust books and they haven‘t failed me or let me down yet.
Any book box twins this month?
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I decided to randomly open a book box that my parents delivered back to my apartment a few months ago….almost instantaneous dopamine boost when I realized that “All Along You Were Blooming” and “How Far You Have Come” could be added to complete this MHN poetry book stack on my nightstand!!
I don‘t know that I saw “Peace is a Practice” in that box, but I do know that I have it somewhere and will eventually add it back to this stack as well!!
Happy International Women‘s Day to all you literary ladies out and around the world!!
Your role as a bibliophile babe in the world makes it a better place to be today and all the rest of the 364 days left in the year!!
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Yesterday was such a great book mail day that I forgot to share that my blue box came!!
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