Sketches of Women with Disabilities in Public Spaces. Sketch 3 – 29 August 2016
For two months now, I’ve been taking my mom to Tai Chi classes. Not a class for people with disabilities. A class for women only. It is a small class, consisting of five participants. We convene every Sunday for 90 minutes of an empowering experience. For me, it isn’t only about Tai Chi. For me, it is about empowerment. About feeling comfortable with myself and my body movements in a non-judgemental environment. It is about Hagit leading us through movements that are adapted to my mother’s disability. It is about making us feel that we have the strength and the power to be who we are. Hagit’s approach is incredible. During these past two months I’ve seen my mom become more motivated to live a fuller life. It is reflected in her bigger smile in the mornings when I come to care for her. It is reflected in her insisting on going out twice a week (in the past, sometimes it would take months for her to leave the house, and even then, we had a lot of convincing to do). It is reflected in her newly aroused interest in houseplants and caring for them. And there is also weekly progress. This week, she asked me to search for some simple stretching videos for her. We found four, and now she exercises daily at home for 25-30 minutes.
For more sketches of women with disabilities, and to read excerpts of “Six Weeks,” which has a disabled female character, see previous posts.
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in the photo: Emilia, my mother (left), and Hagit, in a Tai Chi class. Haifa | 21 August 2016
Writing in the Margins 