85 (plus)

I may have missed the actual calendar day (Friday, 9/21), but the way I see it: it’s never too late to fly flags for peace. I know there’s peace around the dinner table, and I know there’s peace as in countries around the world minding their own business, tending to their own backyard, and playing nice with each other. And I know there’s peace as in around the water cooler, but today I think about peace through the lens of Nancy. For Nancy and others like her who simply have a different way of being in the world . . .

I wish them
understanding instead of scorn
and acceptance instead of ridicule

I wish them
care instead of abuse
and tenderness instead of harm.

I wish them
to be seen and not overlooked,
to be respected and not dismissed.

I wish them
ample opportunities for expression
and the materials to be creative.

My biggest wish is not for all the Nancys in the world to be more like us,
you see,
but for us to be more like them.

Then, it seems to me,
we would know peace.

_______

She draws:

Then I stitch:

And that’s how we do it.

~~~~~~~~~

She is my developmentally disabled sister-in-law, Nancy,
and I am Jeanne, the woman who flat-out loves her.
Go here to start at the beginning and read your way current.
And there’s a pinterest board, too.