When I first got my son’s autism spectrum disorder diagnosis, I felt overwhelmed – “where do I start?! Do I learn more about what autism is? Do I learn more about the treatment options, first?” It felt like everything was critical to know yesterday, which is absolutely overwhelming. There can be a bit of a…
When You Can’t “Let Go and Let God”: Anxiety & Meltdowns in Ministry
Okay ministry leaders (particularly youth ministry and faith formation), this one is especially for you. I confess. I’m kind of a control freak. As a youth minister and faith formation director, I prayed and planned meticulously to try and create beautiful, powerful, meaningful experiences in which my kids, teens, and/or parents could be absorbed by…
Can You Handle Sensory Overload?
Last week, when we focused on mass and the autism community on the blog, I mentioned the community’s motto: if you’ve met one autistic person, you’ve met one autistic person. I also mentioned that roughly 95% of individuals with autism are impacted by sensory processing disorder, so it’s likely a very common occurrence for autistic…
Imperfection, God, & Disability
Recently, I saw this image of a pretty gross looking ear of corn and a beautiful, nearly perfect-looking ear of corn. The caption on the deformed corn said, “How I see myself” and then the caption on the delicious-looking ear of corn read, “How Jesus sees me”. The point of the image is that we…
Take Your Children to Mass – A Complementary Message
Imagine that you spent your morning expending herculean energy to try and convince your kiddo to get dressed, brush their teeth, put on their shoes, and walk out the door to school without them tantruming or having a meltdown. Imagine it was only mildly successful, so it’s 8:30am and you’re already stressed and a little…
It Starts with Mass
It has begun: thesis writing! Today starts my summer of grit-filled, self-disciplined, academic, creative writing of my master’s thesis…as soon as I finish this post. Since I’m writing my thesis on it, I’m obviously very interested in my thesis topic, so I love when people ask what I’m writing about and working on. Here’s…