I haven’t updated my blog for quite a while, so I thought it was time. It’s not like I’m not writing or doing ministry…I may be doing too much! I write reflections for my church every week, work with a young man on setting goals, rewriting my presentations, and so much more. I work out four or five days a week, and Kelly and I are shopping for a new van.
Health wise, I’m doing okay. We got the diagnosis of Auto somatic dysfunction and Aspiration pneumonia confirmed in December and have a follow up appointment with a pulmonologist soon to establish care. Unfortunately, I’ll have to have another hernia surgery in April. Until then, Kelly and I have five concerts to attend.
In the meantime I’m posting an excerpt from introduction of my new book, “My Name is Tait, and I…”and a picture of Kelly and me from our date on New Year’s Eve.
Enjoy!
P.S. Please take a look at Tait’s Speaking page (link above) for my new presentations for 2020. To schedule a presentation, please email me!
(From introduction)
My name is Tait. I’m 45 years old and a Colorado native. I grew up in Black Forest going to district twenty schools. I love the Broncos and the Avalanche. The Rockies are okay too. I workout at the Y every day and have one Dr Pepper a day. Ok, it’s usually a Double Gulp from 7-11.
I also have cerebral palsy, but we’ll get to that later.
Parts of this piece was originally a PowerPoint presentation given to transition students many years ago. As several young people in my spear of influence are aging out of the school system, I wanted to revisit my outline and put it in written form to encourage them and their parents. It’s also written for my wife and friends who haven’t heard some of these stories as well as other professionals. I’ll talk about this in a moment.
This is not a complete biography of my life. My desire is to write down what I think would benefit a student who lives with a disability, his family, and his support systems (schools, doctors, social workers etc). My other books, My Exodus and In the Accessible Church, have more details about certain periods of my life especially in the areas of my service dogs and faith, but I hope this will give my readers some things to ponder, a few laughs, and encouragement to try this thing called independent living.
The topics in the piece are straight forward. They are arranged by subject. Each essay begins with a simple statement: My name is Tait, and I have
-cerebral palsy
-a family
-an education
-friends
-Dogs
-work experience
-goals
-Marriage
Each essay or chapter begins with childhood going through current day. Some years ago, I figured out that I had to adjust my thinking about my cerebral palsy at each stage of my life. So how I thought about my disability in high school was totally different than what I thought about it as a thirty year old and it might be different when I’m fifty. In football terms, I often used audibles and adjust to what life brings. The stories that follow will flesh this out.
-faith
-A challenge
10:45 service. (Actually there’s two of us now. I’m the one sitting in the middle asle toward the back.)
rarely go as planned. Like the other day, I I had my day all planned out until I received a Facebook message from someone who wanted to know how to start a disability ministry. I talked with him for a hour. A young man who has CP contacted me because he is frustrated and doesn’t know what he wants to do with his life. I’ve been praying for an opportunity to mentor a young person who has CP for a long time.