One of my favorite books to read to my son is I Like Myself by Karen Beaumont with wonderful illustrations by David Catrow. It was given to us by my Aunt Carol and really celebrates the idea of accepting ourselves for who we are. The exuberance the young girl the book uses to express that, no matter what, she is truly happy to be who she is and there is no one else she’d rather be, transcends into a universality of self-acceptance. I am often asked after performances or presentations if I ever wonder or wish what it would be like to have both my hands. I always tell the… read more →
I am so grateful for this New Year and for what the future holds! I’m excited that my speaking manager, Kate Holgate, will be launching a brand new website soon for Alliance for Success Speaker Management and for the additional exposure I’ll receive to even more meeting planners. My wish is that my work continues to remind audiences that we all have differences, but it is in the acceptance of our own differences that allow us to see our shared humanity in others. I saw this quote from Bill Nye recently and it has stayed with me, it is something we need to remind ourselves of these days. “We are one… read more →
Nobody likes to lose. We all want to win, we want to lift our arms in victory and hold up the trophy. It seems almost everything in our culture is a competition. Everywhere you look someone is trying to dance off, sing off, cook off, or date off the competition. The winners are celebrated and the losers are shuffled off with their heads hanging. It is very risky to put ourselves out there and risk the pain and frustration that comes from not being number one. But is there another way to look at it? Can we find a “win” in the middle of a loss? I just experienced this… read more →
April has been, among other things, “limb loss awareness” month. As a kid I was keenly aware of my limb loss but didn’t have a mentor whom I saw going through the same experience. My childhood days were spent trying to figure out how I fit into the world and working hard as I could to find my place on the playground, on the bike trails or on the ball field. There was also Ty Bullard’s back yard. This vast oasis of freshly cut grass was the home field for football games for the boys of the Ellis Point neighborhood. Ty and his friends were older than I was and… read more →
I am very excited to begin my new speaking keynote and blog, Navigating a Two-Handed World…Single-Handedly. Back in 1998 I was working for the Phoenix Theatre for Children in Columbus, OH. I would tell these stories of my life growing up with one-hand and of my hilarious and entertaining family. The artistic director suggested I take these stories and write a one-person play. It took a few years but I created my first solo play, The Quest and began a journey that has led me to this moment. Over the past 12 years I have created three solo plays and began using aspects of my solo performance to create a… read more →