Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Autism Awareness Day




I'm blessed to be the mom of one pretty amazing boy.
We've been through our trials,
(which continue everyday),
but I know that our journey has served a purpose.
This essay really captures the feelings and experiences of 
so many special needs families.
It's well-known in disabilities circles,
but I'm not sure that typical folks have enjoyed it.
I hope this gives you an idea of what life is like
for those of us dealing with (sometimes) extraordinary challenges. 
As the latest numbers suggest,
it ain't gettin' better. 


Welcome to Holland
When you're going to have a baby, 
it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip - to Italy. 
You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michelangelo David. 
The gondolas in Venice. 
You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. 
It's all very exciting.

After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. 

You pack your bags and off you go. 
Several hours later, the plane lands. 
The stewardess comes in and says, "Welcome to Holland."

"Holland?!?" you say. "What do you mean Holland?? 
I signed up for Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy. 
All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy."

But there's been a change in the flight plan. 
They've landed in Holland and there you must stay.

The important thing is that they haven't taken you to
a horrible, disgusting, filthy place. 
It's just a different place.

So you must go out and buy new guide books. 
And you must learn a whole new language. 
And you will meet a whole new group of people 
you would never have met.

It's a different place. 
It's slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. 
But after you've been there for a while 
and you catch your breath, you look around.... 
and you begin to notice that Holland 
has windmills....
and Holland has tulips.

But everyone you know 

is busy coming and going from Italy... 
and they're all bragging about 
what a wonderful time they had there.

But... 

if you spend your life mourning the fact 
that you didn't get to Italy, 
you may never be free to enjoy the very special, 
the very lovely things ... 
about Holland.

c1987 by Emily Perl Kingsley. All rights reserved




***Please use a blue light in your lamp post for the month of April
to support Lil' Guy and others living with autism.  Thanks.***

 
TALU

9 comments:

  1. Girl that was absolutely beautiful! I love it! TALU

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  2. Thank you so much for sharing Daisy. That is very lovely.

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  3. What a beautiful perspective and way to express it. TALU

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  4. I've never read that essay before, so thank you for sharing. It helped to give me an idea of what it's like to have a special needs child. I don't have any children yet, so I can't totally understand, but the essay gave me a better understanding for sure.

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  5. I love this essay. I only just read it for the first time about a year ago. Being a parent to a special needs child myself, it really hits home.
    Thanks for linking this up with the TALU!

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  6. Thanks for reading and appreciating it. ;0)

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  7. Daisy it's just beautiful. Have you by chance seen the blog {I think it's called} Love That Max? A mother of an autistic boy writes about autism - I work at a not-for-profit supporting people with disabilities and their families and we've been recently sharing some of her posts with parents in our organization.

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    1. I haven't seen that blog yet, but I will check it out. Thanks for letting me know about it. I'm so glad you are sharing good stuff like that with parents. It helps to know we are not alone.

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Thanks for taking the time to leave your thoughts!