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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

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

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

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

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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.

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


_______

She draws:

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Then I stitch:

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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.