July 25, 2015
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Navel Gazing
Are You Seeing Me?, ASD, Autism, AYSM, Daughters, Disability, Diversity, Fathers, Journal, Kids, New Release, New YA Lit, Sons, Twins, YA, YA Lit, Young Adults
11.00am, July 21st 2001. In the too-familiar confines of Brisbane’s Wesley Hospital, my daughter is born. Three minutes later, my son follows.
How to properly mark the arrival of my children into the world? What can I do to let them know they are loved from the first second forward?
I will write them a journal. One each. Until their fifth birthdays. It makes sense; I have so few skills, but seeing lives, conjuring thoughts, assembling words – these are my staples.
I write. Moments of hilarity, of poignancy. I fill small pages with tiny details and big imagination. Flickers of a technicolour film in its formative months. I write fast for ten months.
Then I am slow.
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July 15, 2014
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Uncategorized
70 Years, Birthday List, Birthdays, Families, Family, Happy Birthday, Kids, Love, Moms, Mothers, Mums, Parents, Sons
My extraordinary Mum turns 70 this week. I love her. Here’s a few of the countless reasons why:
Her green eyes
Her smile
Her louuuud laugh
Her penchant for ‘Tweed’ perfume
Her fierce loyalty to family
Her limitless love of her three boys
She constantly lets me know I am the favourite of her three boys
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April 4, 2014
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News
Authors, Babies, Books, ebooks, Fertility, Fertility Problems, Fiction, Kids, Kindle, Novels, Parenthood, Parenting, Pregnancy, Twins, Writing
With our twins now on the cusp of becoming teenagers, it seems a lifetime gone since their very existence was in question.
It wasn’t that long ago, though. Latter part of the nineties, turn of the millennium, to be precise. While couples worldwide were daily adding millions to Generation Next, we were trying – and failing – to supply just one.
Difficulty having a child was not something I’d ever imagined. Not in high school (all too easy to get a girl knocked up); not in university (I’m never having kids anyway); not when my beautiful wife and I married (let’s have some fun first), not as a school teacher (I’m not ready to have one of these jokers). Not even when we decided to give it a go, see what happened.
Nothing happened.
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August 21, 2013
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Navel Gazing
Autism, Autism Hate Letter, Canada, Difference, Hate Crime, Hope, Karla Begley, Kids, Max Begley, Ontario, Parenting, Respect
Hi There
My name is Darren. I thought I would get in touch. I live a long way away – on the other side of Canada, in fact – so we’ll probably never see each other in person. I thought a letter might be the next best thing to say hello and pass on something important, something I hope you take to heart.
A letter. Your mum wrote one. It is evil. Unforgivable. The police say it isn’t a ‘hate crime’, but that’s just what the law says: it is hateful and it is criminal. That’s not just my opinion – that’s how many, many, many people feel about it. The words in her letter – they should never be written down, never spoken. They should never even find a way into your brain. Your mum’s letter shouldn’t have happened. But it did. She has to live with its consequences for the rest of her life.
You don’t.
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Myperbole 