Some creative-thinking folks conjured up this event where I'll be speaking Sunday:

In Middle Tennessee, we are very blessed to have a long-standing, highly successfully recreational and therapeutic horseback riding program for children and youth with disAbilities, called SaddleUP! Weeks ago, event registration quickly filled to capacity with about two/third parents and the others, instructors to hear my wonderfully creative friends Blythe Corbett, Vanderbilt professor of psychiatry and founder of SENSE Theater, and musician Tammy Vice and myself.

Thursday, May 17, I'll also be speaking, per usual, for the bi-monthly Autism Society of Middle Tennessee's Autism Orientation, on behalf of the parent experience as well as twice at the second day, June 1, of the Tennessee Disability Mega-conference. There, I'm taking my personalized parent orientation on the road to the greater disability community because the grief experience is universal and also extends beyond disAbility to all life experiences. (I'm not just writing and speaking about Autism here, folks.) I'm also collaborating at the conference with Lacey Lyons, Belmont University adjunct English professor and Courtney Taylor Evans, of the Vanderbilt Kennedy Center, coaching parents and adults with disAbilites on how to write their story via Tennessee's Kindred Stories project. (I've one on their website somewhere. I think it's this one: "[…]I'm giving this summer the finger!"

Happy am I to be actively speaking this spring. And, Grace's last spring art show is up at the Green Hills Library now. Last weekend I made the final trip, totaling, in one month, about 2,500 miles, about 40 hours in the car (yes, my butt hurts), and about 700 buckeroos-worth of gas guzzling to put up three GraceArt shows, necessitating three trips to the out-of-town site. ( also drove to upstate South Carolina to be with family over Easter.) The GraceArt shows have received great press, good attendance, response and, sales so far. Nina Cardona, talented arts reporter with local NPR affiliate, WPLN, FM 90.3 is in the process of featuring us in a segment. As they say: stay tuned. I'll be sure and share the story link here on "The Journey with Grace." The reception for the current Green Hills show is open to the public, Sunday, May 20, 2-4:30, with special music by special dulcimer player Micah Elliott and also Massood Taj playing a "Global Music Tapestry."

After an intense five weeks of squeezing my creative juices of every last drop, I'm looking forward to refueling said juices in an upcoming private writer's retreat! I'll be resuming work on "The Journey with Grace," the book, and making this blog readable again after a month of neglect. Happily. Happily.

Life is Good and rest is welcome!

Illustration: Designancy (Nancy Swindell, talented graphic designer and SaddleUP! instructor who also really "gets" autism!)