Well, I can find the place to write again. I have to work on my exercises. I mailed the book to my friend and picked up a package from the Post Office, and got a ball, and I hope the ball is the right size. Koraling Llynne .

Flexibility

I attended a great webinar on work place flexibility. It was great. If there is anything I am passionate about, it is flexibility on all levels. The modern stress factors, and the fact that one out of every 2 people will be caring for an older parent or family member or neighbor in the next five years was astounding. It's not just about working moms, but older workers, two-income families, and increased stress and I loved it because telework and telecommuting were discussed as well as different locations to work during the year, shorter work week, and differnet options for time off during the day to attend to responsibilities. There is less time for ourselves, and for spouses, and relationships are suffering. It's about understanding your employee and their needs which leads to greater productivity and morale. I heard about work-sharing and work-family balance in industrial social work classes twenty years ago. Now they speak about work/family merge or integration. Koraling Lynne This was sponsored by the Society for Human Resource Management.

anger and forgiveness

I just want to have less anger and blame, shame and all that. I have said this before. Calling people names of the four-letter variety or five-letter and especially preying on women, people of color, disabled people, and other people is not about just spirituality but also about trauma-informed therapy or EMDR, and I don't know what the letter stand for basically. I believe in questioning, flexibility, options, interdependence, inclusion, wrap-around services, and counseling, coaching and consulting. Threating, fear does not work. As Doug Stephan said and a modern thinker Jay Kumar said that gratitude, and growth, and possibility is better than fear and collapsing with opportunity. When folks shut down conversation and topics become much less possible, why be in a relationship of that kind? I've had it with that sort of "my way or the highway." Listening is not valued any more. Face-to-face conversation has been replaced by other forms of communication with texting, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Linkedein. Oh, my. Anyway, things should be much more loving, interconnected, forgiving, etc. Koraling Lynne

language

Sometimes, my husband speak about things such as his health and the like, and he says his back is okay, but not when he lays down. That is a contradiction. Today, he just does that and last night also where he does not understand why I don't understand, and he says he has mellowed out. Maybe he has. Anyway, today, on a transportation committee call with American Council of the Blind, language si so important. Giving proper feedback is important. The tags in our organic brain are interesting. The premise seemed to say that in accessibility of the built environment, using paratransit is not independence, and moving from there to a fixed route or pedestrian access. It is not linear, and you can use both fixede route and paratransit, and it is about choice. They did not like choice either. I can't remember why, but one of the participants gave a good title. We have been e-mailing about survey monkey which I commented on here about before. Many governmental and non-profits use that as their web-based survey creation site of choice. Language and access are so much a part of what needs to be done these days. Koraling Lynne

orientation and mobility

I spoke to my friend Peggy at the VA who along with two others (a mobility instructor) and a blind person, and Peggy did not know if I could walk down a hall. I used to do that stuff, but I have become scared which is crazy. I tried to learn, but Peggy is moving her location, and might not have been there today. I explained how one could tell about how narrow a hall was, how wide and how shore-lining was used to count openings. To approach something and to know it is there is the opposite of avoidance with a dog guide. Anyway, we'll see about the poodle, and whether I can really walk well enough. I'm just not sure any more. Koraling Lynne

a circle comes round again

On Sunday, I saw part of "Love Leads the Way" a Disney movie on www.mytvland.net and I cried when the dog became ill, because it reminded me of Merry, my last dog guide. It took so many times to get laws that would allow public access to dog guides because of businesses who did not understand. When a crowd or group does not know about service animals or dog guides, it is time to educate them, and not be complacent, as Eric Pepin, my spiritual teacher, said in a class yesterday focused on world events. I become so disappointed in people's attitudes and their rigidity. I like enthusiastic, giving, caring, people. Open people and as dad says a universal love fest or love-in. Small-minded and petty people have no time in this harried, crazy existence. Honestly, when I had dogs with neighbors, I did not have these problems. I never had a service animal, though. I just had dog guides. Hesper and Ragu barked some, but Fennel and Merry rarely barked at all. koraling Lynne

Another draft to fix

I saw Love Leads the Way about the first Seeing Eye dog and Morris Frank in Memphis. He was adventitiously blinded from an accident. I cried when Buddy, his dog was in pain reminding me of Merry. In 1936, a law was passed to allow dog guides to enter the public sphere. It is not any differnet than access to African-Americans, disabled folk gay people and the like. We must value all people. We must not suppress any ideas. The political ads now which talk about freedom and how people should be free to just allow straight people and deny gay people employment or housing is no different than business can discriminate against women, disabled folk, just change the word. I detest that kind of politics where black is white, and white is black. Freedom is another word for someone who wants to justify their racist, homophobic, anti-woman rhetoric. Self-defense if you feel (not that you know) someone who is young or another race is going to attack you, so you kill that person? The Southern Poverty Law Center speaks about the rise of violence since President Obama has been elected. I don't like many of his policies, but it is not about his race. My God, will we ever change? We think that able-bodied people are better, smarter, more competent, have more information, are quicker than a disabled person. Look past your foggy thinking at who people are, not your prejudices which bog you down in religious dogma and your interpretation of the Bible. I respect that you may have the right to deny women birth control, but not when you deny someone's right to speak and call her a "slut" Thanks for listening. I don't want to offend anyone, and I have problems with intolerant people. When I was about 13, Gerald Mack said he hateed most "toleration" a "tolerance" which was still pretty racist to him as a blind, African-American who I went to school with. I was teased about being Jewish as a teen-ager because people did not understand it. Fear, hubris, greed, spoils, plunder, these are things we must work on because equality is what we should value.

Lagging post that becfame a draft

Are atheists as fervent about religion as religious people? One person on a recent trip on the paratransit said that organized religion is like organized crime, but organized crime is more honest. He was kind of tongue-and-cheek sort of, and grew up in Philadelphia and I in New York, and those of us on the East Coast are kind of intense, passionate and skeptical. I agree about that, for the most part, with all the wars fought on the basis of some religion or other. Even Jews, as dad explained about his grandfather, who lost their belief because of some decision of a master tailor and my dad's grandfather, and he no longer believed in Judaism after a ruling went against him. Was it the Sanhedrin or some other Jewish authority? Really, and the Boer wars, the Northern Ireland "war", the Nazis, and any fundamentalists who use religion as their springboard for decision-making. It gives them license to hate gay people, women, disabled people, believe in the meek and the hierarchy of dominion politics. There have been principled people such as Father Berrigan, Dr. Martin Luther King, and other people who were service-oriented and self-sacrificed, but I think it is a problem when people impose their ideas on others. Atheists can be pretty intimidating also, because they are so definitive about their opinion. The men in my life who are atheists, and the woman I knew who is now Orthodox because it answers all her questions, and I like solutions, but I like questions better. We must open our hearts and minds, not close them to new and different ideas. Koraling Lynne

the bitter and the sweet

The memorial for my cousin's wife or dad's first cousin's wife which I still get sad about will be later this week. My Florida kin are traveling back for that. I wish I could be there. I will be in spirit to say a fond farewell for this sweet, feisty, wonderful person Frances! I do miss her, and remember all her kindness to me and my family, and her interest and caring of us. koraling Lynne

benefits of being blind

First there are things I embrace about being blind. 1. I have a keen observation of things around me. My peer counselor said that I am incredibly aware. She asked me about five things I noticed on the walk from my house to hers. I noticed how warm the sun was, the packed almost glassy texture of the snow under my feet very smooth, a car that I was trying to project my energy into, my cane I could almost see as a seesaw going back and forth, and the difference between the temperature of the shade and the sun even as we were in conversation. So, I want to hone my observational skills. People always felt as if we would not contribute to a conversation, so we because good observers. When I enter a room, many times conversation ceases because people are eyeing me with interest, curiosity, or suspicion/fear. Another thing about blind folks in general is that we are resourceful. We have to think of ways to get around problems because sighted people can't do that since they are not blind. I like collaborating with others and figuring out how things can be worked out. I have not always been good at this, since many times the door gets shut in our face. I know I had about two more, and I'll try to remember them, because they are interesting. We are good educators and trainers becaue we have to explain our devices or other sorts of information to the sighted or general public. It is just something we are good at. I have not accepted the tried and true, since the way most people see things is not what has worked for me. I have always questioned things, because what people told me did not seem right intuitively. That's about all for now. koraling Lynne

more reflections

Wow, I'm using Chrome, which actually is helping and echoing keystrokes. I could not use Chrome before, but this seems to work, so good deal. Websites in three problems lately--the interface for the disability entrepreneur class, totally inaccessible. Maybe I should try that with Chrome, and see if that works out? Hmm. However, JAWS would not speak with the JAVA bridge for Blackboard collaborate used by the University, and it is like a slap in the face when I worked with the Center for Human Development on net meeting or webinar interfaces or VOIP software programs, such as ILink and Adobe, and I am not happy about this when JAWS stopped speaking during the install part, and one member of the technology blind group said there is not a very good interface with this. This blogger thing has dogged me for a month, and I finally changed with it. The HBI Galaxy is not that good either, so oh, well learning new things even if I am kicking and screaming. (Smile). But, actually, if it works better, so be it. Our cell phone voice mail system was updated on March 15, the Ides of March, as Shakespeare called it in Julius Caesar, I think. Koraling Lynne

I have been reflecting. I know wen I am thinking better about things. As my spiritual teacher says, that we should notice three things and I thought of that when three events were shown to me which happened yesterday--that the house in New York sold three days earlier got notification of that, and a trust may be set up for mom's care, and my husband found the hearing aid place he needds to buy his hearing aids from when he goes to Mexico, and also the physical therapist said that I am moving and no problem with movement, but keep exercising and walking. He said I am extremely intelligent and I am amazing. I firsst felt as if I don't belong anywhere whether here in Alaska, Florida, California, New York, Arlington, and places I loved were Portland and also Seattle and Hawaii. I felt as if I did not belong in my body, that it is foreign to me also. I still have some pain, and that won't go away. At least, that is what Keith said. People don't see us when we are disabled. They have a problem with their perception and their brain tells them we cannot do anything, especially if we are intelligent. I realized when listening to a class on Sunday, that I don't want to be around people who want to suppress life and other people. Blogger is not that accessible with JAWS, and I'll see how long I can use this blog without switching to Wordpress or something. JAWS is not voicing what I am writing. Koraling Lynne

Hello, It's March 12, 2012. I have not posted since I was on the beginning of the trip, and now I'm at the end of it. Mom is better than I would have hoped. I'm not happy with harshness in environments or people. Too little communication, Linda, the hairdresser in Sarasota agreed with me. I hope I can post this. It's crazy. I've tried to post in this new interface, and it is not easy. I need to earn money, and I'm more depressed than ever. It's about 80 here and I'm going back to about 14 degrees. I don't know what to do. Well, things have been okay, and seeing a friend after more than 20 years was fun on Thursday and Friday. Koraling Lynne