Dear Friends,

Well, we skipped a couple of weeks of All Our Brave Hearts! Oops. I have been doing less than usual, and probably needed that. But I am glad to be back with our newest episode! This is another Q & A.

Please submit more questions! I love answering them. This episode is short and sweet. I am preparing some more intensive episodes coming up. I am so loving the great feedback on this podcast!

I am wanting to share some updates, but that can wait for later this week. Happy October to you, and I hope you are all doing well!

Your Friend,

Danny

Dear Friends,

I am so glad to share this podcast episode from Think Inclusive Podcast, where Tim interviewed me and Tara. He is involved in efforts to make education more inclusive. I so appreciate him amplifying speller voices, and also promoting All Our Brave Hearts podcast. Please listen if you haven’t already!

You can listen on their website or watch here on YouTube.

I am having a bit of trouble sleeping these days, but thankfully I am not too dysregulated. A lot of my peers have trouble with sleep. I would love more research on this. It is a tough challenge for many of us. But at least for now, I am managing okay. Just not so able to do a lot of what I want to these recent sleepy days. Hoping this week will be better.

Hope you are all enjoying the transition to autumn. It is my favorite time of year!

Your Friend,

Danny

Dear Friends,

I had the best time in Oregon! Wow it is beautiful there. So lush and green. It is so different from San Diego!

I had an event at Autism Mustang Alliance, along with powerhouse spellers Niko Boskovic, Ethan Nagy, and Diego Peña. Edlyn Peña was the keynote presenter. I was honored to be in such company!

I got to see old and new friends in the audience. And I got to make new animal friends, too! Searmi runs Autism Mustang Alliance and has created a wonderful space for mustangs, donkeys, goats, pigs, chickens, and dogs. I am still aglow from interacting with the horses. Their energy is just amazing. I even got close to a cagey stallion who let me slowly approach. Searmi expertly guided me and taught me how to read his body language. I was so feeling his feelings. It was a special moment.

I loved meeting Searmi and her family, including her speller son Ben. He rocked a “nonspeaking, very verbal” t-shirt part of the time, and it looked great on him! I also just loved being in a crowd of spellers and our allies.

Our time besides the event was fantastic, too. The food in Portland is great and especially exciting for Tara as a vegetarian. We tried Sri Lankan food, a first for me, and also a feast of vegan dim sum. Also decadent pastries. And we walked around so much! I loved our simple neighborhood walks. And we hiked to a gorgeous waterfall. It was like being in a different world. Also, I picked up some books from Powell’s. So much good stuff in a few days.

Thanks again to Searmi and Autism Mustang Alliance! This was a lovely experience that I will fondly remember.

Your Friend,

Danny

Dear Friends,

I am in Portland! It is a special place to me, as it is where I first spelled with Elizabeth Vosseller and showed my family that I am in here. I am so proud to return now as a panelist for an event on spelling. What a full circle moment!

It is amazing to think of how far I have come. I am so overcome just thinking about it. It is hard to process it.

This event is hosted by the Autism Mustang Alliance run by Searmi. She has kindly supported my travel and my mom and younger sister’s travel, making it possible to afford a family vacation this year. Tara was already in Oregon teaching a course on conservation, so it was meant to be! I am so proud that my career sponsored our family trip. This is huge for me!

If you are near Portland area, consider joining us on Saturday. It should be a great event with fantastic speller advocates. Registration is free – email heyhay@autismmustangalliance.org to register and for more details about the event.

I am honored to be part of this!

Your Friend,

Danny

p.s. This is us in our Portland AirBnb, cleaning the chanterelle and lobster mushrooms that Tara foraged over the weekend!

Hi Friends of Danny! Tara here, with the latest All Our Brave Hearts podcast episode.

Danny’s doing well, having a nice time with our mom and sister. We recorded this a few weeks ago, before I left for this trip, and we were both pretty exhausted and stressed, but he really wanted to get this episode out. So he decided on a “short and sweet” one, focusing on things that bring us joy and hope.

Please let us know something that brings YOU joy and hope!

You can read/listen at https://allourbravehearts.substack.com/p/ep15-some-light and listen on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

Hope you’re all doing well!

Tara

Hi there, Friends of Danny! We’re once again apart, just for a few weeks this time, but he’s asked me (Tara) to post our pre-recorded All Our Brave Hearts podcast episodes during this time.

We discuss the art of apologizing, and how we approach apologies as the giver and receiver. Check out the audio and transcript on Substack, or just listen on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

Let us know what you think!

Dear Friends,

I am having a tough day. My spelling has been so sloppy. This has been happening for a few weeks, though some days are fine. It is so scary to lose proficiency in my lifeline. My work takes longer and I get frustrated and worried. It is so stressful.

Tara has noticed since it started. She has been working hard to clean up my technique. But I get irritated with her being strict, even though it is needed.

I am not sure why this is happening. My typing has been more erratic for a few months, but I only type when transcribing my spelled words. Tara noticed that, too.

Don’t worry, I don’t think it is a neurological disease or anything like that. It might be a lot of things. But I have had a CRP who was not being careful, and I think that allowed me to develop bad habits. I should have told Tara sooner. But I was not wanting to lose a CRP, even if they weren’t supporting my communication well.

It is so important for all CRPs to be mindful and follow best practices. It can disrupt my communication even with an excellent CRP like Tara. To all CRPs, please take this seriously. It is about my access to reliable communication, which is so vital to my well-being.  Sloppy CRPs endanger that.

I will try to rest more and hope that it lets me be more resilient to this stress. Tara is leaving soon for a work trip of one month, but our sister is an excellent CRP, too, so she can help me unlearn these bad habits. We are going to work on basics again, and my mom also will help.

That is all for now. Hope you are all doing well!

Your Friend,

Danny

Dear Friends,

Whew, I am tired! I have been enjoying my birthday week, but now I need some down time. Thank you all for the wonderful birthday wishes! They made me smile.

I am happy to share that Episode 13 of All Our Brave Hearts podcast is up. The topic is “Dignity of Risk.” It’s an important one! I am curious what you think of it and how this idea plays a role in your lives.

Thank you so much to those of you who have shared how much you love the podcast! Wow! Some of you listened to us during the long drive to Motormorphosis. That was so cool to hear! We put a lot of work into this podcast and it is my passion project. So I am thrilled that you are appreciating it!

Now I am going to rest. I have two lazy days planned! I hope you are enjoying your week!

Your Friend,

Danny

Dear Friends,

 I had the best time on Saturday! My friend James hosted a pool party for my birthday. It was a total spellers’ party. There were ten of us spellers, including several in our thirties. Many of us were already friends with each other, but several also made new friends. It was perfect to hang out in the cool water surrounded by friends on a hot summer day.

Our families enjoyed it, too. The pizza was delicious, and my mom baked a fantastic cake that met the dietary restrictions of everyone. James and his parents were great hosts. And James was so proud to throw an awesome party!

I felt so loved and appreciated by all my friends. This was the first speller celebration of my birthday, where it was a big gathering of my speller friends. I got more cards than I ever have! And I got some really thoughtful gifts. It was my best birthday celebration!

My real birthday is tomorrow. I will be 39 years old. Wow! I am so proud of what I have done in a little over four years of my new life. I am so excited about the coming years!

Thank you for being part of my new life!

Your Friend,

Danny

P.S. I am not posting all our photos because I want to respect people’s privacy. We have many more great photos, but you will need to imagine them!

Dear Friends,

I am so full of specific memories from Motormorphosis that I wish I could share, but that would fill a book! So I will just share more photos here. I am so happy I got to see some of my social media friends and to meet new friends who are also sharing great content online. Plus of course all those friends who are not on social media but who I know from online activities and groups. I am so appreciating how connected we can all be via the internet.

I wish Instagram allowed more than ten photos per post. It is hard to choose from so many snapshots of this fantastic event.

To be honest, I am struggling a bit with dysregulation today. I am not sure why, but fatigue and so many ideas and feelings to process is certainly part of it. So I will rest now. Hope you all are keeping well!

Your Friend,

Danny