These are lessons I have learned from sitting with the snow. Take from them what you will, and please, listen to the snow yourself. See what open secrets it imparts to you.
Tag: Chronic Pain
Patricia (Patty) Berne died on May 29, 2025. I never had the pleasure of meeting her. We were not friends, or even in the same social circles. Hundreds of miles separated us. But nonetheless I felt grief, pain, and a bit of emptiness.
My health has grown more complex, more difficult to support and bargain with. But my commitment to writing, to telling you these stories, has only grown. This quest may be ending, but there are untold others waiting to begin.
It's a lie crafted to shame nonnormative bodyminds which can't meet standards of productivity, output, and success. While it is true that you may be able to ignore symptoms for some time, they will always come back stronger than before. Disability is not something to be overcome; it demands respect and accommodation. It demands love.
It's difficult to ground teaching practice in Disability Justice when so much of the educational system is antithetical to those values. Still, I try, and I am very open with my students about that. Things are a bit easier as a mentor. My first-year college students are able to comprehend more quickly the tenets of DJ, and we can meet outside of the crushing pressures of the educational system.
When the pain first came back, I ignored it. My parents had taught me that the best thing to do was power through. Mind over matter; will over pain. But that couldn't work forever.
Ashton Rose 