October 26th, 2021

Post date: December 22, 2021

We had a lively crew turn out for our October NSA Zoom meeting: 7 of us zoomed in and we welcomed new member Martha, an SLP from Southern Maine area who loves working with kids who stutter and wants to know more. She knew where to start! Martha is hoping to gather groups of kids who stutter together and start a kids/family NSA Chapter ! We also welcomed back Andy... fresh off the Appalachian Trail... yep, he did the whole thing! We loved listening to some of his stories (especially about writing on mushrooms for other hikers!) and he was gracious to also answer our questions. He even met another person that stuttered (or at least "used to" so he said!) on the trail. He's also is starting to attend Toastmasters... following in the steps of many great NSAers. Megan joined in with her great brave risk-taking trip to the stylist and we cheered her on!  Natalie celebrated National Stuttering Awareness Day in high style!  Tough to beat being interviewed about a workplace product... and then having the " media professionals" cut/paste portions of her interview into a larger major podcast for a wide audience... and GUESS WHAT folks?? The "pros" kept in (did not edit out) any of Natalie's stutters. They told her she sounded "great" and her "real voice" added great authenticity to the podcast. WooHoo! What a great way to celebrate October 22nd! Chris has been very busy harvesting his gardens and orchards... good work and good living off the land. He's been learning Italian these past few years and attends groups to practice. He talked about stuttering in a foreign language. It's hard and requires much more multitasking than those who are fluent... we juggle many balls. Jeff is always a champion of the NSA and keeps reminding us that the annual conference will be in "his  California neighborhood" next year... the end of June 2022. I shared a bit about my husbands and my crazy  car warrior road trip from August 24 - Oct 3rd... 40 days and 40 nights... from Maine to Idaho and back. Many National Parks/Monuments/Historic Sites. Lot's of talking mostly with only "the guy" beside me in the car. So it was , in that way, a strange time for me... lots of "not talking very much". Throughout all our sharing, we moved on /off to discussions about being brave, strong, and especially about stamping out those "negative thoughts"  that can defeat all your good efforts to move forward and take the risks and journeys with our stuttering! Some of these ideas fit well with Geoff Johnson's ISAD article (Changing our Relationship with the World) that I had sent around earlier.