"Child to child to child; heal the world with style. Happiness gone wild, healing child to child to child."~Lynette Lynette Louise aka The Brain Broad (from her song Thing to Thing to Thing)
When my mom--Lynette Louise aka THE BRAIN BROAD--discovers where she made mistakes, or followed an unhealthy path, she examples a willingness to change course. She shows us that it's a strong, intelligent person who apologizes for mistakes. Not a weak one.
"Sooner is better than later. Though, later is MUCH better than not at all."~Lynette Louise aka THE BRAIN BROAD
My mom--who struggled to understand why she was so different, living a life of ever-changing labels and diagnosis--travels the globe teaching, showing, and explaining how to help children and adults with similar invisible disabilities and challenges. Mom craves the comforts of home, but knows that she's needed desperately elsewhere. With families who are also hers; the ones she has the gift of answers and understanding for.
"You can't walk gingerly. You have to step in and say I am going to love you robustly, and we are going to get to the end of this!"~Lynette Louise aka THE BRAIN BROAD
I remember marveling with wonder and confusion as my mom fought to adopt my siblings. All of whom came from abuse, most of whom lived with disabilities and likelihoods of life on the street or in institutions. While their own parents were desperate to not care, my mom begged to be the one who could love and hug and teach them. She saved them. And while navigating a broken political system, she still found energy to prove to my new siblings that it was never them that needed fixing. They had challenges, hurts, and disabilities to overcome or learn to live with, but it was the system that was broken. Not them. And for families fighting and learning now, my mom will continue to reveal what she knows. With passion, entertaining stories, and actionable answers.
"Understanding the intricacies involved in raising someone with physical or mental challenge for those who have never experienced it is like trying to understand anything foreign; impossible, though definitely worth doing anyway."~Lynette Louise aka THE BRAIN BROAD
Through song, comedy, speaking, her international reality series FIX IT IN FIVE with THE BRAIN BROAD, the movies she writes, the articles she publishes, the shows she's interviewed on, her podcast, her books and more.... she doesn't ever stop believing in and sharing with the world. She knows all of these things and teaches all of this, not because she's better than or smarter than, but because she's lived through it--and done so with a slightly different mind, giving her an ability to see things and make connections some of us just don't see easily.
As I think about so many amazing visionaries and believers in freedom, non-violence, and acceptance that came before, I have a hope.
As I read accolades and articles of those who made beautiful statements and stood as strong and consistent examples of truth and transparency, I have a wish.
As I learn about activists and creative non-violent passionate fighters for community that have movies made about them--often after their death--I have a thought.
I hope, wish, and want my mom to be celebrated and heard while she is still living. I want the actions she examples and the tools she shares to be easily available for every home and every family.
I see now, as my own children grow into amazing men, and as my own life is filled with happiness and gratitude that grows naturally from the seeds and soil my mom offered us kids growing up, that we are truly lucky indeed!
And if my mom is celebrated and heard now, while she's living, then everyone will have the opportunity to be so lucky. And they will also have the opportunity to see themselves and their own abilities in her, and after a short time (as is her intention) without her. If we wait until after a person dies to celebrate their visions and words, it's too easy to also assume they were better than or smarter than, and to forget that they were what we are: a person. And in that way we often lose much of the lesson, because we forget that we too can discover truth--without a visionary. We can unlearn memes and assumptions taught to us, without someone telling us how.
Though we do often need someone like my mom, someone who is unique, to remind us to look and see. So let's listen while they're living.
These people who are celebrated for choosing non-violence, acceptance, freedom, action, and forgiveness are worthy of celebrating! But it's a mistake to celebrate them as though they are more than. They aren't. Their words and actions resonate with us because they're congruent with what we want to see more of.
They resonate, because they're in us too.
They're in you.
And that's beautiful, man!!!
Beautiful!!
"Parenting was my goal, ever since I can remember. I have learned more from teaching my children than I could have ever learned from chasing a dream with fewer people to care for. I am greedy. And so I filled my world with a lot of people to love."~Lynette Louise aka THE BRAIN BROAD
I scream into the wind I made."~Lynette Louise (from the song Brainiac)
Enjoy this music video of my mom singing what it's like to feel both smart and insane, and how to find the comfort and answers in it!
