Writer & Rider
I started this when I was at the National Institutes of Health last February, and finally finished coloring the last part in today.
It was appropriate for today. I am thankful for so much of the love that is around me and am hopeful for peace, both internally and externally.
I’m going to put this up somewhere as a blazing bright reminder to find the peace and love that is everywhere.
I went off campus this weekend! Seriously… I don’t think I’ve ever spent 5 days in basically 2 buildings with no outside excursions before and was getting a bit stir-crazy.
Saturday my mom and I decided we needed some retail therapy so Georgetown seemed like the ideal destination. Figured out the Metro (whose weekend schedule is even worse than BART!) and went into the city. 
Successfully walked from the Metro stop to Georgetown and spent a few hours exploring and browsing. 
Ended up at Georgetown Cupcake, which was amusing since I don’t watch the show at all… but I can’t argue with good cupcakes!
Had a bit of a Metro delay/weird NIH shuttle service issues which meant we had to walk back to the Lodge, but we made it!
Today we spent the morning exploring the Children’s Inn – it made the Lodge look positively tiny! There’s so much going on and it’s incredible. 
After lunch we met friends and wandered the NIH Clinical Center looking at the art (and talked up the benefits of participating in the Moebius study!). 
Went to dinner at another friends’ house (off-campus!) and successfully took Uber home!
Looking forward to Rare Disease Day tomorrow.
Falling is an apt metaphor for life with challenges of many types. It is also the name of a new play, being presented Off-Broadway and regionally, about a family.
It presents the unique challenges of being a family affected with a condition such as severe autism, and raises powerful questions and doubts that need to be discussed.
For me, art is so incredibly powerful because we can explore so much with it. Falling made me squirm. It made me sigh with relief, then gasp. It made me THINK.
That is what great art is. It asks tough questions that are uncomfortable to answer. It makes you doubt yourself and what you think you would do. It makes you cry.
Falling is a powerful and much-needed piece of theater. I highly recommend it for mature audiences interested in family and disability issues.
Natalie Abbott