PitaPata Dog tickers

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Words of Wisdom

If enough of us choose to change even one small thing, together we have the power to change anything.

— Rick Hansen
"Far away in the sunshine are my highest aspirations. I may not reach them, but I can look up and see the beauty, believe in them and try to follow where they lead."
- Lousia May Alcott

Friday, February 27, 2009

General Etiquette Tips For Interacting With People With Disabilities

Ask Before You Help…

Do not automatically give assistance; ask first if the person wants help. Just because someone has a disability doesn’t mean he/she needs help. If the setting is accessible to his/her particular disability, usually assistance is not needed. If someone does want help, make sure to ask HOW you may best assist.

Be the assistant, not the director; let a blind person hold your arm and follow you. And don't be offended if someone refuses your offer of assistance. It's his or her choice to be as independent as they can be.

Be Sensitive About Physical Contact…

People with disabilities have the same sense of personal space as everyone else. Additionally, personal assistance devices such as wheelchairs, walkers, and FM loops should be recognized as an extension of the person using them. Therefore, if you wouldn’t naturally lean on an able-bodied person’s shoulder, don’t lean on a person’s wheelchair. Never push a person's wheelchair without his or her permission.

Be aware that some people with disabilities depend on their arms or devices for balance; so grabbing someone, even with the intent to help, could knock them off balance. Let a person who is blind hold YOUR arm when you guide them - not the other way around. Do not pet guide dogs.

You may gently touch a deaf person to get his/her attention.

Please do not recoil if you meet a person with AIDS; shake his/her hand as you would anyone. You can't get AIDS by touching. And your acceptance means a lot.

Think Before You Speak…

Always speak directly to the person with a disability, not to his or her companion, aide or sign language interpreter. Converse with him/her as you would anyone without a disability. If the person has a speech impairment, listen carefully and patiently. Ask him to repeat if you don't understand. If the person doesn't understand you when you speak, try again. Don't let him think your communication with him is not worthwhile to you.

If the person is deaf or hard of hearing, follow his or her lead; use gestures or write. If the person uses a wheelchair, sit and converse at their level.

Don’t Make Assumptions…

People with disabilities are the best judge of what they can and cannot do. Don’t make decisions for them about participating in an activity.

Treat the person as an individual. Don't assume that the person's disability is all he can talk about or is interested in. Find a topic of small talk, the way you would with anyone. Don't treat the person as a disability.

Do not leave a person with a disability out of a conversation or activity because you feel uncomfortable or fear that he/she will feel uncomfortable. Include him or her as you would anyone else. He or she knows what they can do and want to do; let it be their decision whether or not to participate.

Use Positive Language...

Use people first language when writing or speaking about people with disabilities. People first language always recognizes and puts the person first. For example: instead of “a wheelchair person,” try “a person who uses a wheelchair;” and instead of “the disabled,” try “people with disabilities”.

Avoid outdated and pity-centered terms like “handicapped,” “crippled,” “victim,” or “sufferer”.

Differing Environments…

Be sensitive about the setting. A noisy or dark environment, or people talking simultaneously, might make it difficult for people with a vision, speech, or hearing disability to participate in a conversation.

Be aware of clear paths of travel for people who use wheelchairs or are blind. Describe going-on and surroundings (especially obstacles) to blind person.

A person with chemical sensitivity may have a reaction to smoke, perfume, cleaning products, or other forms of toxins in the environment.

Hidden Disabilities…

Not all disabilities are apparent. A person may have trouble following a conversation, may not respond when you call or wave, may make a request that seems strange to you, or may say or do something that seems inappropriate.

The person may have a hidden disability, such as low vision, a hearing or learning disability, traumatic brain injury, mental retardation, or mental illness.

Don't make assumptions about the person or his or her disability. Be open-minded.

Learning More…

Lack of knowledge or misinformation may lead you to shy away from interacting with persons with certain disabilities. Preconceptions about mental illness, AIDS, cerebral palsy, Tourettes Syndrome and other disabilities often lead to a lack of acceptance by those around the person.

Remember that we are all complex human beings; a disability is just one aspect of a person.Learning more about the disability may alleviate your fears and pave the way for you to see the person for whom he or she is.

Overall attitude and approach to persons with disabilities…

As you meet people with various physical disabilities, you will likely find that you are apprehensive about how you should behave towards that individual. Every person is different and some will find it easy to work with such individuals, whereas others will find it difficult adjusting to working with people with physical disabilities.

Always remember that a person with a disability is a person. He or she is like anyone else, except for the special limitations of their disability.

Just Remember:

Ask for help when you are unsure. “Proper” etiquette with people with disabilities is just like “proper” etiquette with people without disabilities: it is sensitive and respectful. It also reflects a belief that people with disabilities are able to and entitled to participate in and contribute to society.

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Reflection: Holy Eucharist or 'Fast Food'?

Reflection: Holy Eucharist or 'Fast Food'?

By Jennifer Hartline
2/11/2009

Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)

We came and a miracle happened right in front of us. Are we so accustomed to it that it no longer ignites our sense of wonder and awe?



CHESAPEAKE, VA. (Catholic Online) - This morning at Mass I looked around quietly during Communion, and I was struck by a most heartbreaking thought.“I don’t think we even know what we have here. I don’t think we realize WHO we have here.”

It was the Angelic Doctor who once wrote:

"Material food first changes into the one who eats it, and then, as a consequence, restores to him lost strength and increases his vitality. Spiritual food, on the other hand, changes the person who eats it into itself. Thus the effect proper to this Sacrament is the con­ver­sion of a man into Christ, so that he may no longer live, but Christ lives in him; conse­quent­ly, it has the double effect of restoring the spiritual strength he had lost by his sins and defects, and of increasing the strength of his virtues." (St. Thomas, Commentary on Book IV of the Sentences, d.12, q.2, a.11)

Admittedly, it is a truly mind-blowing thing to accept that we receive the true Body of our LORD in that small piece of bread we take and eat, and His Blood is the wine we drink. (I could go on here for a hundred pages of adjectives attempting to capture the awesomeness of God and I couldn’t even come close.) So for our teensy little human brains to understand this extraordinary mystery is a very tall order indeed.

Every Sunday we gather with joy and gratitude to worship and we sing and pray and praise Jesus with our whole hearts, our minds focused only on Him. We absorb like sponges the Scriptures we hear and the teaching given to us by our priest or deacon, before we finally stand up and approach the altar of grace to consume our true LIFE. And when we approach, we fall down on our faces, unable to stand, because we know Whom we are about to receive and the knowledge is too great for us. We are overwhelmed by Him.

Right? Shouldn’t it be that way? Shouldn’t we strive for that experience?

But it wasn’t like that this morning. It seemed more like a line of folks at a cafeteria-style restaurant than faithful souls approaching their Lord for DIVINE LIFE.

People were chatting with the person behind them…staring blankly at the floor or the wall…smiling or waving at someone a few rows away…shuffling along as though going nowhere special. And perhaps worst of all, people casually receiving the Lord and then walking right out the door…leaving, without stopping even a moment to pray or show reverence and gratitude.

I know I am guilty of distraction, too. I’m often trying to direct my children in front of me (“cross your arms, sweetie…”) and keep them moving forward, while the 2-year old in my arms is squirming to get down. I feel tired. My arms ache. My mind is 2 hours ahead of me on the day’s schedule. This is not terribly conducive to deep spiritual focus.

Still, this morning I heard Jesus whispering to me, wanting my full attention, wanting the full attention of everyone in the room. I felt Him tugging on my heart, as one wanting very much just to be noticed. Do we not know that we are receiving an unspeakable gift? How is it that we allow ourselves to be so distracted by trivial and even ungodly things during the most important moment of our lives? We seem to rush by Him so quickly…it must wound His heart.

Jesus gave us everything, down to the last drop of His blood on the cross, and now that Body and Blood is present in all its holiness and power to nourish and strengthen us…yet somehow that understanding doesn’t penetrate our hearts enough. In all honesty, I think someone looking in from the outside would think we were just lining up for a snack of crackers and juice.

The Eucharist is the single most important distinction between Catholics and many other Christians. What we proclaim about this Sacrament - and about the holy priesthood - is different than what many other Christians, (other than our Orthodox Christian brethren)believe. We profess that we receive the Body and Blood of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, as we approach that altar of sacrifice.

It is an astounding truth. So astounding, I think, that our minds alone will not be able to process it and come up with an affirmative belief. Only the heart, only the spirit can accept this magnificent reality, and from the looks of things, it seems we have a hard time getting in touch with our hearts and spirits.

It’s a tragic symptom of our human nature that we fail to recognize what we see all the time. Something profound has become ordinary. Something unfathomable has become so familiar we barely give it a second thought. We have it all, and it doesn’t impress us anymore.

I know that we all come with our own burdens and problems and hassles weighing on our minds. It isn’t easy to set all that aside and give our full concentration to the Mass. But those burdens and problems and hassles are precisely the reason He wants to feed us! Our Jesus is waiting, wanting, eager to give Himself to us, hoping we will truly see Him and receive Him. He ordained to give Himself to us in a way we can touch, taste, and consume into our frail bodies in order to be fortified in our daily struggles. But we are weak and afraid, or lazy and indifferent, or self-absorbed and hard-hearted, so we do not find Him. We are not strengthened by Him. We are not changed by Him.

We may take, but do we fully receive? We may eat, but are we truly fed? We came, and a miracle happened right in front of us. Are we so accustomed to it that it no longer ignites our sense of wonder and awe? I certainly hope not. Heaven help us if we cease to be amazed.

We desperately need the Holy Spirit to penetrate our hearts with a renewed conviction of our most sacred beliefs. Perhaps we need to exercise some self-discipline and gain control of our wandering minds during Mass, and train our hearts to “tune in.” We must come with faith, however small, and really look at the Lord we are being fed. If we are faithful to do that, I have no doubt that God will meet us and take us the rest of the way to understanding in our spirits what our minds may find inconceivable. He will sustain us in body, mind, and soul.

Can you imagine what would happen then?

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Jennifer Hartline is a Catholic Army wife and stay-at-home mother of three precious kids who writes frequently on topics of Catholic faith and daily living. She is a contributing writer for Catholic Online.

http://www.catholic.org/national/national_story.php?id=32060