WRITING

Matt Mooney

Matt Mooney

Somebody See Me

Matt & Ginny start the second half of season 1 with a seemingly simply question: What is a good life? An entire episode focused on the life of a man known as Bulldog– told through the eyes of his brother, Chris Wheeler. It is a journey of Chris beginning to see a person who was there all along. You can learn more about Chris & Lindsey Wheeler as well as learn more about Lindsey’s book Sacred Tears at bottleoftears.com. Produced by Matthew Lyle MooneyMusic provided by Musicbed & Blue Dot Sessions.Sound effects provided by creators Freesound.org

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we are not our talents

In the age of television talent shows galore, our hosts attend one that manages to flip the narrative of what a talent show is & could be. Chelsea, Jordan & Claire want to sing at the bEfriend talent show hosted by 99 Balloons, but to do so they will have to overcome their fear of what others will think of them. In addition, Jamie shares a story of when celebrating someone with a disability is actually demeaning. Listen along as we contrast these two stories and are challenged to treat persons with disability as individuals instead of as a monolithic…

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we are not our bodies. Part 2.

Matthew Lyle & Ginny Mooney continue the discussion of healing and the church by delving into the lives of their friends with disability who do not want to be healed, cured or fixed. When they stumble upon an article, written by Madeleine Ryan, entitled Dear Parents: Your Child with Autism is Perfect it is though they are reading everything they have lived with their own daughter. Madeleine describes her journey throughout life and why the changes she desires have nothing to do with her autism. You can find out more about Madeleine and her newly released first novel- A Room…

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we are not our bodies. Part 1

When the loss of a child becomes a nationwide, prayer movement to #wakeupolive what does it say about the church and its relationship to healing? to suffering? In the first part of a two-part series discussing healing & the church, Matthew Lyle Mooney along with his wife, Ginny Mooney, set out to discuss the awkward relationship the current Christian culture has with disability. Along the way, they talk with author KJ Ramsey & friend, Emeka NNaka, who help challenge the cultural norms that exist around disability. Music & sound provided by Musicbed, Blue Dot Sessions & Freesound.org Script available at…

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summer

Summer is here.  At 5, 6 and 8 we got rascals riding bikes and swimming at a skill level whereby we are not in constant stress.  I told Ginny sometime some summer not long ago that I was done going to pools.  With 3 that cannot swim alone, I can only act like I’m listening to whatever adult is talking to me, my head drawing a repeated triangle from locating the 3 bobbing heads while I simultaneously feign my best impression of the laid back dad & try not to tell this person what an idiot they are for trying…

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weekends with rascals

I’ve worked hard to develop a new habit of carving out Monday mornings to sit and think and pray and grasp for some semblance of sanity before I cannonball into the week that will eat my lunch if I let it.  It’s a rebellious act of counter-intuition as weekends are supposed to be the very thing that serves us this way.  Now, I love my weekends at home and all- but it’s not a peaceful-cup-of-coffee-type of experience currently. If I had to measure, I would say it packs about the same rest as being chased by a pack of wolves….

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The Surface Dialogue Guidebook

We’ve reached that point in these beloved Ozarks where we’re just all waiting around for the good weather.  We get all four seasons here; just enough of winter to know we don’t want to move north; which we needed no help knowin’.  Being bone-tired of Ole Man Winter being a hanger-on is all you’re allowed to talk about- other than the razorback basketball revival- in these parts; whether it be the gal sacking your groceries or the college hipster handing you $4 coffee, so goes the surface dialogue guidebook.  It’s unwritten but just as real as the holy book itself…

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shifting gears

I often look at my backside in the mirror. I move quickly past the place that you imagined I was seeking and find the splotchy spot just above the bend of my right leg.  It’s my biggest scar- remnants of days I spent riding my Honda 80 dirt bike for hours on end along the hill behind my house where within a 3-minute ride Arkansas turned into Oklahoma. Often times I would lug the unstarted motorcycle to the top of a certain steep drop off in order to mount the red machine, point it downhill and coast until max speed;…

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striving for a secret

Check it out, Ginny & Lena are in the current edition of National Geographic.  A while back, a wonderful photographer followed our family around for a few days in order to capture photos illustrative of an article on brain development…fascinating article and wonderful pictures (we think).               _____________________________________ If you have been around me much, it does not take long to learn of certain things that come along as a part of the package- tethered to the molecules that combine to make me: At 37, I am still unable to grow any semblance of…

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from Fergie to Ferguson

Against my better judgment, Ginny convinced me last Monday to sit beside her and watch the American Music Awards.  I begrudgingly complied- mainly due to the fact that I love her and if she invites me to sit close to her, I do it- every time.  I’m a sucker that way, but that doesn’t mean I don’t moan on and on about the drivel that she makes me watch. Ginny admittedly loves television.  She loves awards shows.  Loves reality tv.  She once made me watch the Bachelor; she seemed happy.  I put my foot down and told her I would…

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a plea for nuance

By Matt Mooney | November 6, 2014

                      My post-election social media feeds are half-filled with exclamatory proclamations of a country now headed to greater grandeur than it has known, while another half of the updates, statuses and links swear impending doom for women, children and wage earners. We are a bit…

for the day the calendar says it's been 8 years.

By Matt Mooney | October 27, 2014

Today, I will go to the same restaurant, being sure to walk the same route- as best I can remember. And that’s just it, I hate myself for forgetting something about that day- but I can’t recall, what I can’t recall. about the day that changed it all. I tell myself to let it go,…

Crawl. Walk. Run.

By Matt Mooney | October 20, 2014

It’s been 4 weeks since I have written.  Or bathed. It’s been 4 weeks since Ginny’s back surgery. Thanks to all who have served us so well.  Meals have been made, laundry folded.  Sure, it’s a bit of a downer when you realize that a friend of the opposite gender folded your tightey-whiteys.  I haves…

Almost. Not yet.

By Matt Mooney | September 11, 2014

Sometimes I write for you. Sometimes I write for me. This is most likely the latter. It’s been quite a season in the Land ‘O Mooneys.  Many of you know that while on our trip to Michigan, Ginny re-injured her back.  And so her vacation headed more toward Purgatory than Petoskey.  [That ole trick that…

Kindergarten.

By Matt Mooney | August 19, 2014

Blonde hair poured over the top of the purple, floral-covered backpack that swallowed up most the rest of her, until her legs peeked out from the skirt she had laid out with precision the night before. This would be her outfit for the first day of kindergarten. She has chosen her own clothes since sometime…

in the midst

By Matt Mooney | July 10, 2014

Tomorrow my beloved and our three amigos will pile into Big Red and we will point that bad boy north; our annual summer voyage to Petoskey, Michigan takes about 14.5 hours according to the Google. But Google is a liar; we hustle to do it in double time. Ginny will bring out the crafts, games…

Guest Post:: Atlas Girl (Emily Wierenga)

By Matt Mooney | July 1, 2014

If someone sat me down and pointed the barrel near my vicinity and asked me what was my favorite genre of books….then, and only then, I would offer up “memoir” in a muffled tone. Thereafter, I would stand up and kick his butt with some Ozark ninja moves that I learned only from being on…

when it gets hard and you are who you hate

By Matt Mooney | June 23, 2014

I am kicking Ginny out of our house for 2.5 days come Tuesday.  She deserves more.  But this currently seems tantamount to cresting Everest- so we’ll celebrate instead of mourn the fact that 2.5 days is a gold medal moment.  I am the very dad that scoffed at fathers who acted like they were super…

books, clubs & imaginary conversations

By Matt Mooney | June 6, 2014

When you take long breaks from blogging, you have stuff to pass on to the world- the one you actively ignored for a while.  Sorry ’bout that.  My soul thanks you for your grace. 1.)  I am working on a children’s book.   Admittedly, this is sort of like saying, “I am working on a…

on chasing, tickling and not writing

By Matt Mooney | June 3, 2014

It has been a while.  I know your life must have seemed incomplete without my typed- up musings.  I see that you have found a way through my absence.  As have I.  My last blog post ranted on the cyclical nature of blogging and the whole phenomenon of the fear of being quiet.  So, I…