Dark Nights of My Gummy Bear Soul

Here it is, Part 4. If you are just jumping in now, I started a series of writings on the confederate flag directly after Memorial Day. This blog was birthed out of a deep sadness at the realization that there are people here in my current hometown of Winston Salem that think the confederate flag is not offensive. It all started when I posted in an online Mom's group asking about the potential for Confederate flags at a parade I wanted to take my son and husband to. Mj loves flags, and they have the largest regional parade not far from our house.  After 24 hours and a firestorm of comments, I deleted that post. Several women were outspoken in total surety about their stance that the flag WAS NOT offensive, that it represented heritage or a pride in being from the south, and many scoffed that anyone would still find that flag offensive and mentioned "getting over it" among other things that made me nervous and restless. For every woman that wanted to hold onto the confed

In retrospect, Im pretty mad at myself that I directed my  last post   about "special needs parenting" to Dear Special Needs mom instead of Dear special needs parent. Im sure there are special needs dads, or just dad of any kid who isn't perfect (get it? it's all of the kids. alllll the kids have extra special needs and things. yay!) that could have benefited from my encouraging open letter. Well, here is another post for parents. ***Im pretending that Im writing it to other parents, but really its a letter to my own weary, freaked out, thankful, sad, hopeful, crazy heart. Play along. Dear special needs/stressed out/scared/ PARENT, How's your day? Today a caring and intuitive friend texted me "How is your stress level?" I responded, "Well, I just found out that I need to drive an hour every week to a doctor for MJ because his spine is doing its own thing and ITS LIKE THE BIGGEST DEAL EVER TO ME and I might cry. And I swerved all over the ex