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"You are never too old to set new goals or to dream a new dream.” – C.S. Lewis

The WRAP Key Concept of Hope involves allowing yourself to:

1) Have dreams for your future.
2) Believe change and growth is possible.

What is a goal or dream you have for the coming year or years?

Alt Text: Photo of sailboat on calm lake with mountains in the background.

Photo credit: Sarah Farmer

As members of Congress return from the August Congressional Recess, we have an important opportunity to fight for policies and programs that are important to people with disabilities and their families.
Medicaid home and community-based services (HCBS) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) are in desperate need of updates to ensure people with disabilities can live independently and with dignity.

Congress needs to hear from you! Tell them to prioritize and strengthen these essential programs for people with disabilities.

Tell Congress to : https://bit.ly/3MAzX0g

Tell Congress to fund HCBS: https://bit.ly/3ZcqVxK

Top Tips to Help You Build and Cultivate Resilience Resilience is what helps us thrive regardless of life’s hardships. Some of us are born more resilient, but everyone can get better at it. Resilience expert Amit Sood, MD, shares 20 ways to boost your ability to bounce back and build resilience.

The Parent's Tao Te Ching: Ancient Advice for Modern Parents by William Martin.

Self check...

Too much pleasure can lead to addiction. How to break the cycle and find balance : Life Kit Dr. Anna Lembke, psychiatrist and author, explains when too much pleasure-triggering dopamine upsets the delicate balance of pleasure and pain our brains need to feel "normal," which can lead to long-term pain and addiction. In today's dopamine-filled world, here's how keep that balance in check.

I’ve lost a year with my kids battling over school and I’m done.

My seven year old and I were in the midst of our usual asynchronous day battle. I had his writing homework in my hand from school. He’d written several full, well-thought-out sentences.

But he won’t do the same for me, at least not without a fight.

I told him he didn’t have to write about his best day like his teacher asked, he could write about his worst. He could write about whatever he wanted as long as he wrote a few sentences.

He said he’d get in trouble. He said he was doing a bad job in first grade. He was on the brink of tears but didn’t know why.

And it hit me.

Instead of getting frustrated and pushing the assignment, I sat down with him at his desk in his superhero bedroom.

I said “you won’t get in trouble and you can’t fail first grade. In fact, you’re kind of a superhero yourself.”

He sat up in his chair just a little and looked at me with disbelief.

I said, “Do you know that no kids in the history of kids have ever had to do what you’re doing right now? No kids in the history of kids have ever had to do school at home, sitting in their bedroom, watching their teacher on a computer. You and your friends are making history.”

A visible weight lifted from his seven year old shoulders, “What does that mean?”

I told him it means I haven’t given him nearly enough credit for rolling with the punches. I told him how proud I am of him and his friends. That kids this year are doing the impossible and they’re doing a really great job.

I apologized for not saying it sooner and more often. A little tear fell down his cheek.

We’ve thanked everyone from healthcare workers to grocery store employees but we haven’t thanked the kids enough for bearing the burden of what we’ve put on their shoulders this year.

We’ve said kids are resilient, and they are. But they are the real superheroes in this whole scenario for having ZERO say in their lives but doing their best to adjust every day.

We closed his school-issued laptop and spent the rest of the day playing. This was supposed to be temporary and here we are a year later still trying to hold our head above water.

This is our home and I won’t turn it into a battle ground anymore over something we can’t control. Something that no longer makes sense.

Hug your little superheroes today and don’t forget to cut them the slack we’ve given everyone else.

Join me in the trenches at Christine Derengowski, Writer !!

Good stuff.

Reasons Today's Kids Are Bored, Entitled, Impatient with Few Real Friends We have the best intentions - to make our kids happy - but the ability to learn delayed gratification is one of the key factors for future success.