So I’m dusting off my microphone, refamiliarizing myself with this podcast world, gathering a list of guests to interview, and diving back into Walking with Freya. I’ve had a bit of a hiatus and I apologize to anyone who may have felt the loss of this, but I’m sure you all were fine. There are so many podcasts for the special needs community out there now, it really is a strong and growing community which is a beautiful thing. So a few reasons I took a break… 1. I bet that’s easy enough to guess – COVID. time, space, energy 2. Freya is getting older and I am beginning to question how much her privacy plays into this. This is not only my story to tell, and in some aspects, it is strictly her story. So I’m trying to find the balance there and know where the lines need to be drawn. 3. Guests – I was struggling to find guests to interview. I didn’t want to force it and it seemed, with everything else, it was a good time to take a break. Since then I have been invited to be a part of a podcasters group, two actually, but the one group I have met with a few times and they clued me in to a few places to find guests. And I am so excited they did because I have some great ones lined up! I’ve already done one interview that will come out next, it was with father and author, TJ Nelligan. He wrote a book about the legacy of his son Sean, called Live Like Sean. It was a lovely and inspiring conversation and I can’t wait to share it with you all. I think, ultimately, one of the biggest reasons I haven’t podcasted for several months, was that I wanted to have something important to say, something profound and hopeful about this pandemic and the time we are living through. I wanted to get through the election and the inauguration so I could finally take a deep breath (and don’t worry, that’s as political as I’ll get here). But we’ve all been at home, we’ve all been worried and grieving, some terrified, some sick and full of loss, and that’s not to say there haven’t been happy moments or laughs along the way but, this is a difficult unsettling time to be living through. It does seem like hope is on the horizon for something different than all of us staying at home, but we are a far cry from the kind of ‘normal’ life we were used to. But what is normal? And how can we, or I, claim to know what that is when so often our lives get rocked to the core with the birth or adoption of a child with special needs. Normal goes out the window. But words of wisdom, profound reflections on this time? I have none. I’ve written a ton of poems. Some that have actually been published –yay! I didn’t want to fill the airwaves with my rambling insecurities and doubts. But again, I do think hope is on the horizon and I at least have a nice long list of amazing people to come on and share their stories and knowledge on the podcast. And I’m always open to more so if you’d like to share your story send me an email at [email protected] I thought I would share a shortened version of my poem Adaptability. I can be a wordy poet, and I’m not sure that translates to a podcast so well. The longer version of this poem was published months ago in Drexel University’s Literary Journal “Paper Dragon”, under the title To Parents of Children with Special Needs In A Pandemic. So before I read, to all you listeners who have stuck around, Thank you, I mean that deeply. To any news listeners, welcome, and thanks for being here! To Parents of Children with Special Needs In A Pandemic This new normal? We got this like any new normal on this journey like giving my daughter a shot every night, piercing her flesh with the thin metal signifier of medical progress like explaining to her, once again, that her shots help her grow strong like repeating her words as an unobtrusive aside, an experienced