Friday, 21 November 2014

Weekend reading and viewing: 22nd -23rd November 2014


Finding Joy Each Day ~ Each Step ~ Each Dance
The Happy Soul Project, 7th February, 2013
... but we got caught up in a group of people- From what seemed like out of nowhere, a group of 20+ adults with Down syndrome filled the park...All of a sudden that park & that moment was where Craig and I needed to be...

The band started to play, I saw a few look at each other & wink with delight & then dancing, beautiful dancing right in the park with nothing but utter joy on their faces...I was frozen in time for a few moments- Just watching it all, trying to get close, talking to a few about Pip, hoping for an invite to dance with them...


Growing up with a sibling with Down syndrome
Sipping Lemonade, 20th November 2014
... when Kate was first born with Down syndrome, I wasn’t sure what our family would look like or how it would continue to grow. Kate had a big brother — but would we have more children? If we could, should we? I had always dreamed of having a big family — would a Down syndrome diagnosis affect that? All families have many unique, personal reasons for their family size, would having a child with special needs affect ours? What would those sibling relationships look like? ...

Janet Carr: They used to say ‘they’re never likely to walk or talk’
Saba Salman, The Guardian (UK), 19th November 2014
Pioneering psychologist on her 50-year study of people with Down’s syndrome that became a lifelong commitment to changing attitudes ...

How perfect baby Gammy opened my eyes to choice
Claire Harvey, The Sunday Telegraph, 16th November 2014
... Seeing Gammy ...  an Australian child born to a surrogate in Thailand _ being lavished with love by his birth mother made me grasp, for the first time in a really visceral way, why the parents of children with Down Syndrome say their kids are a gift. It is embarrassing to admit this, but the footage of Gammy was the first time I’d really understood the obvious truth: that Down Syndrome children are just children ... I do know this: it’s too late to turn back this tide of choice. The information is there, and it’s not going away. Many of our ancient burdens have been lifted. Somehow, we have to learn how to deal with new ones.

Orange Juice Flavour Sky, 14th November 2014
... Sure enough, the figure walking up the path at the side of a busy road, was Emily. Alone. All alone. Emily alone! There’s nobody with her! Hello!!!

In that moment my world seemed to freeze. My mouth went dry. My heart began to race. We were already 50 yards passed…..now a hundred. I couldn’t just stop, we were on a busy road with traffic right behind ...

Hand Me Downs, 5th October 2014
... Sometimes I forget, and that makes it even harder when someone reminds me in a not so kind way….Like the cashier that gave me sad eyes and spit poison in a whisper,

“I bet you wish you had known before he came out. You know they have a test for that now…”

Shock, horror, hurt and fury coursed through my body. I considered jerking her over the register and beating her senseless. I looked her up and down, I could take her ...

Stella Young, The Drum (ABC), 14th November 2014
... as someone who has had more than their fair share of contact with the medical profession over the years, I can assure you that this experience was not an isolated one for me.

And so when people ask me why I am opposed to legalising assisted suicide, this is what I tell them: The medical industrial complex has an inaccurate, but incredibly powerful, view on my life. Disability is often framed, in medical terms, as the ultimate disaster and certainly as a deficit ...

... and a little bit of Rudely Interrupted, Close my Eyes, from 2010:



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