The River

You know that river that runs through Egypt — the one that we all jump into and swim around in, now and then?

DeNile — that’s the one!

I have great respect for denial.  I also seem to have a fondness for swimming in it. Today we met with our new RDI consultant, and I discovered that I’d been floating in that river yet again.

But before I explain, let me take you back a couple of weeks.

Two weeks ago, our amazing occupational therapist gave us a dozen activities to do with Joseph — activities that focus on bilateral (using both hands in a way that they coordinate with each other) movement, and movement that crosses the midline. We’ve been conscientiously doing them almost every day.

Suddenly Joseph became more competent in swimming, drawing and numbers. He started spelling out words on his own. When we drove in the car, he insisted that I roll the windows down so that he could shout, “Hi!” “Hello there!” to passersby — and laugh merrily when they responded. So it’s been a fun two weeks.

On Monday Joseph started insisting that he was ready for kindergarten. I think he is noticing that, while he is almost 6, the other kids in preschool are 3, 4, and 41/2.

Well, it just so happened that, on Tuesday morning, I had an appointment scheduled with the principal/special needs coordinator of our local elementary school. Among other things, I mentioned Joseph’s academic progress and his desire to go to kindergarten.

She was all over it. “Let’s get him in!” she said enthusiastically. “No time like the present!”

On Friday, we are going to visit one kindergarten class for an hour. We’ll visit another one next week sometime.

So I’ve been feeling pretty good about this — feeling that Joseph is ready and willing, feeling that it would work.

Then John came. He is our RDI consultant.

He is new (to us). Kelli, our former beloved RDI consultant, has moved on to different work. So John went to Joseph’s preschool today and observed for 1.5 hours. He came over late this afternoon, and we talked.

He couldn’t say too much about the improvement-needed areas with Joseph in the vicinity, but he did manage to get in one concept: Joseph is not presently other-minded.

Other-mindedness. Ahhhhh.

Other-mindedness is one of the biggest deficits in autism. When someone doesn’t have it, it shows up as an inability to borrow someone else’s perspective, to understand that other people think differently from oneself. It is an inability to consider what someone else might be thinking.

Other-mindedness is the foundation of a good friendship or a good marriage. Or maybe even a good life.

In other words, it is a big one.

Kids start developing other-mindedness around the age of 1 or 2. John talked about working with a 12 year-old who most people couldn’t even tell was on the spectrum. John and this kid were running to a window to wash it together when John fell (on purpose) and began moaning terribly about his hurt knee.

The kid looked back and asked, “Are you all right?” Then he ran the rest of the way to the window and began cleaning it while John lay on the floor, moaning in pain. His mother, watching through a see-through mirror, couldn’t believe it.

It’s a foundational thing, a fundamental building block. Without it, we are painfully lost in most social situations.

Jesus showed very advanced other-mindedness in Matthew 12:25: And knowing their thoughts Jesus said to them, “Any kingdom divided against itself is laid waste; and any city or house divided against itself will not stand [emphasis mine].

I am not grieving about this deficit. Nor am I even beating myself up about not noticing it (consciously) before. Denial, after all, has its place.

I just feel extremely grateful that it has been pointed out to us and that we have the tools and support to get it going. We are in good hands with John.

John had Blue Eyes and me running around the living room with him as he tossed a ball to one or the other of us. We never knew who would get it and had to watch carefully to see what he was thinking.

I can see that cultivating other-mindedness is going to be a tremendous step forward for Joseph. I am excited to begin.

I can also see that, though Joseph is right on target academically, he still needs some help socially. Maybe it’s not time for kindergarten. Those kids are really sophisticated socially.

I don’t know. But I’m getting used to not knowing. It’s almost getting to be a comfortable place to hang out.

One of our earlier RDI objectives was about learning from past experiences and applying those lessons to future ones. If I was to do that  in this situation, I would realize that the right things (working on bilateral movements, a new RDI consultant) have come along at the right time. All I need to do is to stay open, to watch for the signs, to listen for the whispers.

It’s worked before, and it’ll work now. God is guiding me no matter where I am or what I’m doing. He’s there with me, always. He is in my corner.

Even when I’m just floating comfortably in DeNile.

Acheiving Normalcy (or not)

The judges of normality are present everywhere. We are in the society of the teacher-judge, the doctor-judge, the educator-judge, the social worker-judge; it is on them that the universal reign of the normative is based; and each individual, wherever he may find himself, subjects to it his body, his gestures, his behavior, his aptitudes, his achievements. — Michel Foucault

My earliest memory is of standing a few feet from my mother. She is crouched down, arms held out toward me, urging, “Come on! Come on!” Around me are some other people — brothers, sisters — friends, perhaps, but they are mostly a blur.

My mother’s eyes are so very clear to me. There is LOVE — incredible, unconditional, indescribable love — pouring from her eyes into my being. And since I am so young I am very sensitive, and I can also feel that force of love coming from, and through, my mother. It enfolds me, it holds me, it lifts me up.

Paramhansa Yogananda says that God’s unconditional, incomprehensible love is most closely represented by a mother’s love for her baby. In this memory, I am completely filled with that divine love.

In it, I know I can do anything. I take my first few baby steps, finishing my first walk in the arms of my mother. I hear the applause around me, I feel my mother’s excitement, and I know that I am so very, very loved.

What happens to that sense of being unconditionally loved? I believe I was connected to it all through my elementary school years. It was only when I started (shudder) junior high that the all-enfolding sense of being loved evaporated.

I remember the exact instant it happened. First off, my childhood soul mate — my best friend of all best friends — moved away just before I started sixth grade, so I was already feeling bewildered, like I’d lost half of myself. Then, on the third day of sixth grade, I got onto the school bus. One of the popular girls looked at me and said, derision dripping from her voice, “Do you always wear stretch pants?”

The truth was, I did always wear stretch pants. I liked the little straps that fit under my feet and the freedom of movement that stretch pants allowed. But when I looked around, I noticed that nobody — not one single other person — was wearing stretch pants.

A light bulb lit up in my mind. People care about what you wear! It said. They don’t think you’re worthwhile or loveable unless you look right!

I remember feeling disbelief, but then realizing I’d better get on the stick or I would be the target of all sorts of bullies.

Trouble was, it took me three years to really get the look together. So for those three years in junior high, I was spit upon, slingshotted, called horrible names, and more.

But toward the end of those three torturous years, I started to crack the code. I intentionally studied what made people acceptable in this strange new world where you had to conform in order to be loved. And I decided to play the game.

Off went the blue cat-eye glasses and on went contact lenses. Off went the K Mart clothing and on came stuff from the mall. The hair got styled fashionably. And when I started high school, with almost all new people, I  made my way quite high up the popularity ladder.

Still, I never lost the sense that it was some ridiculous game and I’d simply learned to play it. I looked with pity upon those students who, for whatever reason, couldn’t or wouldn’t figure it out and play along. I could never be mean to them the way the others were.

Now, as the parent of a kid on the spectrum, I wonder: Do kids with autism ever crack the code? Do they, can they, learn to play the game — or are they always the target of bullies, of impatient teachers, of people in general who don’t understand? Dr. Temple Grandin talks about those torturous school years. My ASD nephew went through it. So did my cousin’s ASD boy. Twelve years of school — no friends, merciless bullying, and always the outcast.

You may have read the recent story about the boy with aspergers who, after being yelled at yet again by his teacher, got onto the New York subway and lived there — one train after another — for ten days. He took the battery out of his cell phone because he didn’t want any phone calls. When he was finally “caught” he was asked why he’d done it.

His answer: He just wanted to be somewhere where nobody yelled at him.

When I think about Joseph going to a mainstream school, I see myself falling into the “act normally” trap. I demand, over and over, that he  stay seated during meals (he loves to pop up every few minutes to sing and dance, or spell out a word on the frig, or whatever catches his fancy). I insist that he not make strange movements in public. I try to make him brave about going down slides and things like that.

But when I think about homeschooling him, or having him in some other personalized learning program where teachers appreciate the differences in children, then I find myself relaxing and loving what makes Joseph so special.

Take music, for instance. Even Joseph is astute enough to know not to compose in public — but when he is at home, symphonies swell up in his very being, making him move and sway and hum and sing.

When I express interest, he’ll share parts of what he hears with me: “Here come the violins ( he makes some violin music). Now I hear flutes (hums a beautiful, high-pitched melody) — oh, here’s the trumpet” — and on and on.

What did Mozart or Beethoven act like when they were five, I wonder. Did their peers (and maybe even their parents) think they were a little crazy? Would public school — or any school — have crushed the music of their souls?

I guess the question I have about the music that pours through Joseph is: is this autism or is this an amazing gift from God? Or does it have to be one or the other? Maybe the answer is, simply, yes to all of the above.

The other question is, is there a place — other than home — where someone could see, and draw out, the gifts that God has blessed him with? Where his spirit won’t be crushed because he isn’t “normal?” Where he could fit in, autism and all, and not be seen as lesser than the others?

And if there isn’t, does the problem lie with kids like Joseph, or with the rest of us?

That’s it. I’m ending this entry with questions, not answers. Because I have faith that when we’re asking the right questions, we’re getting very close to finding the right answers.

Mom, Look at This!

It finally happened.

I was cooking dinner while Joseph was sitting at the kitchen table,  drawing a picture. He was excitedly narrating what he was drawing as he went along. I said to him, “I’ll know you want me to have a look when you say, ‘Mom, look at this.’”

Lo and behold, a few minutes later he said it. For the first time, ever!! “Mom, look at this!”

Then he drew something else and said it again. And so it’s continued for the last few days.

This evening he came into my room and said, “Mom, look at this train I drew!” He waited for me to look at him, and then the picture. Then he continued. “This one is the steam engine and this one is a passenger train. There is the track, and there are the rectangular windows.”

I remember declaring in an earlier post that, if Joseph ever said anything like, “Mom, look!” I would die happy. So when I die, please know that I have, indeed, died happily.

He’s also gone beyond just calling for my attention with  one little “Mom!” (which, in itself, was a huge milestone). Now it’s “Mom! Mom! Mom! Mom!” Or, for that matter, “Dad! Dad! Dad!Dad! Dad!”

So something is changing. Some new neural pathways are forming, new synapses are firing. Something, somewhere is developing.

It’s exciting. It’s great. It’s — wow — very, very encouraging.

But.

(See? We can always find a but.)

Joseph still has autism.

And I think that maybe, perhaps, possibly even probably, he always will.

He may always have some funny, jerky movements. He may always have a more challenging time with interpersonal relationships. He may always have a not-so-good sense of what’s appropriate and what’s not in social situations.

But I also think that maybe, perhaps, possibly even probably, he’s going to make it in this world.

Joseph just seems to draw people who are good, kind and loving. Whether it’s teachers (this means you, M.P.), sitters,  or friends — both big and small — people love his good, kind, simple and innocent heart. He’s a  bit like Forrest Gump in that way — but more mentally switched on, thank God.

I’ve been listening to a talk that Dr. Temple Grandin gave at the MIND Institute (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wt1IY3ffoU). She is able to talk about her autism in a way that allows us ‘others’ to understand it better. She talks about a book she co-authored with another autistic person. He was more switched-on socially, so that was a bit difficult for them, but they both were obsessed with school buses, so that was cool.

I love the way she is able to laugh at herself. Autism has given her a different perspective than the “normal” person, and she has used this to carve out a unique and rewarding life. She offers hope — and ideas — for ways that people with autism can work, and live, and function in this world.

Maybe it’s not about making Joseph “normal.” Maybe it’s about helping him to do what we are all learning to do: manage our weaknesses and foster our strengths.

Maybe diversity isn’t so bad. I went to elementary school with an albino boy. He had white hair, always sat in the front row, wore very thick glasses and used a typewriter. He was also bright and funny, and, while we were fascinated with how he was different, we also loved him for who he was. We “got” him, in today’s vernacular.

So I think I’m going to stop acting apologetic about Joseph’s funny movements and lack of social graces. We will continue to help him grow in all ways, but we will also open more to the gifts of what we have.

When Joseph says, “Mom, look at this!” I want to remember that it’s not just “this” he is asking me to look at. He is also asking me to look at him – to see the beauty of his being, to be a part of his world. He wants me — and all the rest of us — to “get” him.

Sharing his world. I think that maybe, perhaps, possibly even probably, it doesn’t get any better than that.

The Awful Grace of God

I grew up in a determinedly non-religious, Jewish family. I believe that I always felt God’s whispers in my heart, but I didn’t know what to do with them. In my college years, as I experimented with various drugs, my longing began to emerge more fully.

How I wanted a spiritual teacher. I remember one night, looking up into the stars, beseeching the heavens for that person who would teach me about spiritual matters, who would help me to know God.

That was the first time I ever got an answer from the Universe. It was: wait.

I was both terribly depressed and absolutely thrilled that Someone, Something had responded to my call. And I waited. And I watched.

When I finally found that my path was an inner one of meditation and a more universal view of God, I dove in headfirst. Things were rosy and exciting. Many times I felt God’s quiet, inner presence guiding me or loving me. And I loved her back.

Then I got an email from my best childhood friend. Her brother, Daniel Pearl, was the reporter from the Wall Street Journal who was kidnapped in Afghanistan. The Pearls had taught me all I knew about the Jewish religion and our families had been very close for a while. I had watched while the Pearl children went to Hebrew school. I celebrated Passover and Sabbath with them. They are exceptional, talented people who live their lives with integrity.

After Danny was brutally murdered, I had to process through all the grief and horror just like everyone else who’d known him and loved him. And one of the discoveries I made was that I had a belief that ran like this:

If I do everything right, God will leave me alone.

Leave me alone in the respect that He won’t do anything horrible to me, in that tragedy won’t touch my life too terribly. But when I saw what happened to the Pearls, knowing that they “did everything right,” I realized that the game was much bigger than I thought.

So, I asked myself, why do I even try to connect with God if she won’t take care of me, won’t  play nice with me?

Ultimately I came to the fact that I am a part of God. I cannot separate from him no matter how he treats me, and I will always want to connect more deeply for the same reason a wave always melts back into the sea.  We are one.

But this God figure is tough. She is not only awesome; she is awful. It is the awful grace of God that one runs into in one’s life,  once or twice or more often – depending on what kind of lifetime you’re having.

The Goddess Kali, from the Hindu tradition, personifies this tough aspect of God. Ma Kali is a black-skinned Goddess who wears a garland made of 52 skulls and a skirt made of dismembered arms. In two of Her hands, She holds a sword and a freshly severed head that is dripping blood. She can appear to be wrathful and terrifying.

I knew an Indian man who was an ardent follower of God as Kali. He prayed to her constantly, worshipped her daily, constantly asked her to appear to him. For around 25 years he never stopped asking to see her in form. He longed, he wept, he pleaded to see her for himself.

Well, one day as he was praying he looked up, and there she was. Do you know what he did when the object of all that longing was finally there, right in front of him?

He screamed in terror and ran.

The Goddess Kali can do this to people.

Since autism entered my life, I have felt Kali as a constant companion. Her ferociousness has blown me away. Her willingness to sever my ego is enough to make me scream with pain.

And yet. Kali is said to be a most compassionate mother because she provides moksha, or liberation, to her children. She is the destroyer of unreality. When the ego sees Kali it trembles with fear because the ego sees in her its own eventual demise.

Underneath all the scary parts of Kali is the loving Mother, who is sweet, affectionate, and overflowing with incomprehensible love for Her children.

At this point in the autism journey, I can see both these sides of Kali. I am amazed at how surgically precise she is at removing my illusions, and how willing she is to do so — without anesthesia, I might add — for my own good.

But I am not so scared of her anymore. A few years wrassling with one’s opponent can build up, perhaps not friendship, but most certainly respect. Mostly now I feel her when, for example, the pangs of wanting a neurotypical kid get strong – when I feel I missed out on most of the fun of raising a child. I hear her laugh when I indulge in self-pity.

And I have come to trust her. God, in the form of Kali, is tough. The epitome of tough Love, if you will. But fire, while searing, is also purifying. Sometimes now, in that roaring fire, I will feel her love. I will know that the Mother is with me, tenderly looking out for my highest spiritual potential.

So, I have learned, it’s most certainly not about doing everything right in order to avoid the Big Lessons from the Big Guy. What a relief to give up on that one.

It’s about learning to surrender into that which is hammering at you, learning to see with clarity beyond the illusions in front of you — and, most importantly, to really, really know that it’s all being done out of Love. We came from Love, we will go back to Love, and Love is here and now, always, always.

In my journey, it’s required tough love to bring on an experience of true love. Such is the dance of spirituality and autism.

No One is Safe

It’s been a quiet week in Lake Wobegone. Joseph (and, therefore, Joseph’s family) has been dealing with anxiety issues once again.

Sirens are very hard for Joseph. He can take other really loud noises but there’s something about the combination of  loud sirens combined with the thought of ambulances, fire trucks and other vehicles rushing to an emergency that just freaks him out.

A friend and her boy came over the other day. We took a walk over to a bus stop that was a little further away, in order to give the boys some exercise. Then we caught the bus into town, which is something that the boys love to do.

But on the walk over, we heard siren after siren after siren. Just when we thought it was done, another would start up. Poor Joseph. The only way he can cope is to stop whatever he’s doing and cover his eyes until it’s over. Not his ears, mind you (we couldn’t actually see the rescue vehicles), but his eyes.

So, as the sirens wailed nearby, my friend turns to me and says, “It’s almost like it’s on purpose!”

It feels that way sometimes. Like God is up there saying, “Let’s turn the heat up for little Joseph and see if he can take it.”

Covering his eyes when he’d actually be a lot better off covering his ears. It makes me think about everything we do in order to feel safe.

Just a few days ago, I heard President Obama say that the primary job of the government is for the protection and safety of its people; that’s why we’re at war. I think about all the insurance we buy in order to feel secure; the “safe” places we put our money; the fact that we create a nest egg at all. We wear armor, physically (for snowboarding, skate boarding, etc.) and psychically (keeping people at an emotional arm’s distance). We buy nice houses in good neighborhoods — sometimes behind locked gates. We take our Xanax and our homeopathy. We say our mantras and our prayers.

I once met a woman who’d lost 100 pounds. She said that the hardest thing about it was that now people stood closer to her. She didn’t have that physical fortress around her, keeping them away.

Safety. Amazing what we’ll do for it.

My little boy doesn’t feel safe at times. More than most. Toward the end of his school day he frets, sometimes panics, about whether or not his mom will really come to get him. Dogs are a constant terror. Crowded new places are no bed of roses, either.

It’s the limbic system, where the rational part is not calming down the primitive part of the brain. How do you battle something like this?

Two things work a little. One is called approach and study. So there’s a dog up ahead. I take Joseph’s hand, we stop and I say, “Oh look, there’s a big dog over there. Do you think he looks friendly (I am trying to teach him dog body language)?”

If Joseph doesn’t immediately panic about the dog’s presence, we can talk about the wagging tail and the ears up and the dog’s general demeanor. Theoretically, we can then edge up a bit closer and study some more, but we haven’t gotten to that point yet.

However. We do have friends with a mid-sized dog, and we have graduated from the dog being banned outside when we visit to the dog being held on our friend’s lap to Joseph actually touching his tail on our visits.

And that’s the second thing that helps a little: repetition. Over and over we visit this dog, Miles. Over and over we talk about how sweet Miles is, and again and again we bring Joseph over to get to know him.

That’s our little anxiety/safety issue, but I’ve been thinking about safety on a larger scale, too, and I’ve come to one undeniable conclusion:

NO ONE IS SAFE.

Our community is being rocked right now because a sweet 8 year-old girl was in a car accident last week. Her skull is fractured, she’s in a coma, and she’s got titanium rods in her legs. Will she survive? If she does, will she be brain damaged? Nobody knows.

This is a family that, two weeks ago, I would have envied a bit. Loving parents who got to raise a nice, neurotypical girl.

But sometimes everything we do to be safe just evaporates. Our very foundation is whipped away, and we have nowhere to stand. It’s terrifying.

Unless and until we realize that we are in the hands of God, and that is that. We can do all this stuff to feel safe, but the truth is it’s not our business: it’s God’s.

And this leads me to another undeniable conclusion:

EVERYONE IS COMPLETELY AND ABSOLUTELY SAFE.

Why? Because God is holding us all in His loving arms.

What is the biggest fear? Death. We tell Joseph that death is going home to God and, deep in my being, I know that this is true. Going home to the Source of unconditional love, light, and peace. How unsafe is that? And we don’t have to wait ’til we die to access this Source. It’s available here, now, always.

Here’s the part we don’t get: though life on this planet feels very unsafe, there is an invisible, intangible cable connected to us.

God’s got our backs.

I wonder sometimes how differently I would live if I really, truly got that, in every fiber of my being. That I was safe. That God, in Her depthless love, was always with me, protecting me, caring for me. Would I be lighter, feel freer, see the humor in what is now only viewed with fear?

How about Joseph — how differently would he live if he could get that he is truly safe, on every level?

I suppose it is a question we could all ask ourselves. And then, when we feel that safety, we could focus more on the invisible cable that connects us to God than on the jump (or, let’s face it — the push) off whatever cliff’s edge we’re currently teetering on.

Breaking Open

When I found out that my child had autism, I found myself burning in the fires of trial, tribulation and pain. Slowly, slowly I have been built anew from the ashes. But I will never be the same again.

That’s not a bad thing. I’m reading (now re-reading) a book called Broken Open — Dealing with Life’s Difficulties, by Elizabeth Lesser. And I’ve been observing the people around me, looking at who has been broken open and how they’ve dealt with it.

Some people get broken open — by a death, a divorce, whatever — and they feel the burn. But it seems that, as quickly as they can, they sew up their wounds and get back to life as usual.

Some of us don’t allow ourselves to get broken open all the way. We stay protective, tight, disconnected from ourselves and others.

Reading this book has helped me to break open some more. It’s helped me to let go of the need to have it all together. I feel myself surrendering into the awesome Mystery, into the awful grace of God.

This breaking open has brought some unexpected gifts. When I stopped resisting pain and anxiety, for example, they stopped waking me up at night. After five years (two of Joseph not sleeping, three of diagnosis anxiety), I am sleeping through the night again.

I feel connected. To myself, to God, to others. I feel guided on a deep level. All of a sudden I can’t stop myself from telling my friends how much I love them.

The thing about having an autistic child is that it’s not a one-time break-opener. The challenge continues, day by day. And now I work, day by day, to melt into the Mystery, even in the darkness, and even in the light.

It has brought a deep, nurturing stillness that’s been missing in my meditation practice for years.

I am not running around with a huge smile on my face — I went through that phase a long time ago — but I am more inwardly focused — listening more to others, and listening as well to my heart.

It’s way beyond the intelligence, way beyond the mind. It’s the unconditional love of Mother Mary and the fiery initiation of the Goddess Kali.

Fire ceremonies are common in the Hindu tradition as a way of purifying oneself. What I feel is that I am surrendering myself, my life, and my child into the hot, burning flames of purification. Over and over again.

But these fires don’t feel like the popular image of hell. I am discovering that opening to the pain also opens the door to the joy. Embracing all of this journey, letting everything be welcome here, is absolutely transforming.

God, give me the grace to break open, more and more, every day.

The Best Yoga Posture

Joseph had surgery this past Tuesday. In a delicate area. Ok, ok, I’ll tell you: he had a medically necessary circumcision.

I was, naturally, nervous about this. But my nervousness increased a lot when a friend reminded me that there was a lot of debate about general anesthesia and the toxicity it caused in children with autism. In particular, the use of nitrous oxide has been heavily debated in autism forums and websites, and there is concern that it can make an abnormality with folate (something many autistic people have) even worse.

So Blue Eyes and I hit the books — er, internet — to do some research on anesthesia. We discovered a lot of information, including an article by an anesthesiologist nurse with an autistic child (http://www.autismone.org/content/anesthesia-autistic-child-sym-c-rankin-rn-crna) that spoke particularly about which anesthesia was better for kids with very sensitive systems. It said to make sure your anesthesiologist understands that autism is not  simply a behavioral thing but a physiological condition, and that it needs to be treated as such.

We liked the article so much that we printed it out for Joseph’s anesthesiologist to refer to. We wrote down the types of anesthesia that we felt comfortable using.

But on the morning of the surgery, when we actually got to meet the anesthesiologist, he was arrogant. He told us that the article was anecdotal, that he knew what he was doing, that we could either do it the hard way (our way) or the easy way (his way).

Sigh. I know all doctors aren’t like this, but why are most of them like this? I was on the verge of demanding another anesthesiologist, but I held my tongue. Instead we stood up to him, as we have learned to do in the past few years, insisting that we work together on the drugs that would be given, and not given, to Joseph.

After all, isn’t “anecdotal” the way everything got decided before we developed an obsession with facts? And how do you get facts if no one is doing the research?

Blue Eyes and I had to be willing to go into the discomfort of disagreeing with an “expert.” We had to go on the edge of rudeness, insisting that our needs be taken into account. It took some discussion, but eventually the doctor agreed not to give Joseph nitrous oxide, and we all agreed on what Joseph would get.

This experience was very different from my emergency c-section. When that happened, we gave all our power away to the doctors. Whatever they thought was best was what happened. To this day, I still think it was all those antibiotics that caused Joseph’s already-compromised immune system to tip over the edge into autism.

Do you know which is the very best yoga posture? Standing on your own two feet. This is one of the things having a kid with special needs has taught me to do. Joseph got through the surgery beautifully and is recovering without any visible signs of trauma (other than the, well, obvious one).

We all play roles on this planet. The anesthesiologist got to play arrogant doctor, and I got to play insistent, determined parent. But I can’t help but think that, if insistence can decrease arrogance in the medical profession, then we need some more insistent parents. We need to arm ourselves with information, stand in our truth, and yet be open-minded to the doctors’ input. It’s an interesting balance.

Perhaps, if standing on your own two feet is the very best yoga posture, it’s those balancing postures that come next.

A Quiet Place

I have a large, lovely, crazy, wonderful extended family. When we get together for the holidays, there is usually around 30 people. ‘Most everyone is happy to see everyone else, and there is lots of conversation, laughter, and catching up.

In any gathering like this, you can see that some people get more easily overwhelmed than others. You can find a brother-in-law sitting alone reading, or a teenager lying on the couch listening to her ipod.

But what do you do when your kid is really, really sensitive? And shy? When s/he gets overwhelmed very quickly? And doesn’t know how to fit in?

We managed to avoid most of these difficult questions this year, because we missed Thanksgiving. We were in Maui.

But when we came back, I started to miss my large, lovely, crazy, wonderful extended family. So we called my older brother, Dan, and invited ourselves to his house for an overnighter.

I prepared in advance for this visit by listening to an RDI Webinar that gave  tips for holiday visits. One of their strategies was to make sure that the child with autism had a quiet place to retreat to.

Hearing that was a real “Ah ha!” moment for me.

You see, my younger brother, Aaron, has two lively young girls. As much as we love them, when we’ve stayed there I’ve seen Joseph get very withdrawn. He gets w-a-y overwhelmed and there is no private, quiet space for him to recover. He always sleeps badly.

I haven’t known how to explain to Aaron why we can’t stay with them, but now I have the words: Joseph needs a quiet place to retreat to.

Dan and his wife, on the other hand, have kids who are grown and gone. So half of  their house feels like a peaceful sanctuary.

Another plus is that Dan has a dog. Normally the mere presence of a dog would make the whole visit unthinkable, as Joseph is terrified of them. But this is no ordinary dog: this is a chihuahua. All four pounds of her.

Because she is so tiny, Joseph is not really scared of Randi. Randi is the one and only dog in our acquaintance who has this distinction, so it is no small thing. She is a great practice dog for us.

The RDI Webinar said to find roles for Joseph as much as possible, as it’s not always easy for people with autism to know what to do — how to fit in — among other people. So I got him involved in drawing and then giving the drawings to people. When it was dinnertime, he helped with table setting and various other things.

It worked really well. And then he slept beautifully.

Yesterday there were only the five of us, and then this morning two of Joseph’s cousins (the grown-up kids) arrived. At first, Joseph kept his distance. But eventually he felt comfortable enough to join us at the kitchen table.

Later, when it came time to go out, he requested that his cousins ride in our car, one on each side of him. This was big.

When they first sat beside him, he covered his eyes (he is both autistic and shy. I don’t know which was happening there — maybe both.) But slowly the hands came down and he connected, smiling and talking with them.

So there it is. Nothing monumental, but these small steps in connecting are huge steps for Joseph.

My hope is that, as Joseph makes these connections with members of his extended family a bit at a time, it will eventually be easier to be with more of them at the same time.

*            *         *

Joseph isn’t the only one in our little family who needs a quiet place. That’s one of the main reasons I meditate. My teacher says to create a portable paradise of peace within, and I don’t know what I’d do without that peaceful place.

Since Joseph was born to parents who meditate, we will, when the time is right,  teach him to do it as well. So perhaps he’ll learn to access the peace that passes understanding within his very own self.

Wouldn’t that go a long way in being able to stay centered and unshaken in crowded gatherings? We wouldn’t have to stay only in houses with quiet places when Joseph comes from that quiet place inside.

It will be interesting to see what happens when Joseph learns to turn inward for his solace — to turn to God for the calmness, peace, and serenity he needs.

I find it absolutely invaluable to live my life (as best I can) from the inside out, where my internal world defines my external world. It gives me much more serenity than living from the outside in, where what’s happening externally determines my level of serenity– or, more often, my lack thereof.

So what will happen when Joseph learns to live from the inside out? What will happen when autism meets yoga?

Stay tuned, dear reader, stay tuned.

Pondering a Parallel Universe

Joseph is doing some quantum leaps at the moment. The way we can most see it is in his drawing. You see, his coloring has been mostly squiggles and blobs and blurs, which he has interpreted as trains or thunder or some other objects.

But the other day, in preschool, his amazing teacher taught him how to draw faces. She got a mirror out so that he could look at his own face, and she had him look at hers as well. They figured out together that there are two eyes toward the top, a nose in the middle, and a mouth underneath.

And now Joseph draws face after face, with bodies, legs and feet, too! It’s an exciting step in development. One of my friends, who hadn’t seen him in perhaps a month, couldn’t believe the changes when she saw him yesterday. So hurray! for progress.

We were driving home from the store the other day when Joseph said, “There’s another silver Matrix!” Sure enough, right in front of us was the exact same make, model and color car that we drive.

I started waxing philosophically to Blue Eyes. Maybe that’s me in a parallel universe, I said. Maybe that me has a neurotypical kid. I wonder how she is different from this me?

So, Yoga Mother with the neurotypical child, how are we different? Have you had to learn patience as well as I have, repeating the simplest thing endlessly in the hopes that your child will one day grasp it? Have you tasted the humility of your child being different, being disabled, of your child (and, therefore, you) not fitting in when you’ve desperately wanted him (and you) to? What is it like to not have been imprisoned in walls of isolation — walls we are only now really breaking out of?

Most importantly, other Yoga Mother, I want to know what your spiritual life is like.  Have you experienced drowning in your own delusion — in stress, anxiety, hopelessness — the way I have?  Have you ultimately come to the knowing that God gives it all to us — that S/He weighs it out, measures it, makes sure it’s just right, and then sends it along — even if we never really understand why?

I think, other Yoga Mother, that the spiritual difference is probably the greatest difference between us. It’s not that you aren’t spiritual; it is the most important part of your life. But you haven’t been tested the way I have, and so you haven’t been forced to dig more deeply than you ever thought possible. You haven’t been broken open the way I have, so you haven’t experienced the same magnitude of comfort, grace, and simply the presence of Almighty Spirit with you every infinitesimal step of the way.

Would I trade with you, Yoga Mother of a neurotypical child? Yes. No. In a minute. Never.

Guess I’m not ready to answer that question.

I have a friend who has recently turned 60. She says that, when you look back from that vantage point, everything that’s happened makes sense. She’s had some whopping challenges in her life — so, coming from her, this was no light observance.

And that is where I end today’s post: with trust. Trust that this journey is my journey. I wasn’t meant to be in that other silver Matrix. This road may have some incredible bumps, but it’s my road, my journey. So I bless you, other Yoga Mother, and let you go your way while I, with trust, an open heart, and the grace of feeling God all around me, go mine.

Teachings in the Darkness

In our sleep, pain, which cannot forget,

falls drop by drop upon the heart,

until, in our own despair, against our will

comes wisdom through the awful grace of God.

– Aeschylus

I have a friend, Brooke, whose sister had cancer. The cancer spread steadily until it had filled her entire body. The pain was terrible to witness. For hours, sometimes, she would scream with the agony of it.

Finally one day, when Brooke couldn’t stand to watch the struggle any longer, she asked her sister, “Why don’t you just die?“

Her sister looked at her and responded with a remarkable question. She asked, “How do you die?”

You see, she’d tried. She’d surrendered. She’d let go as best she could. She’d tried to leave her body. She’d prayed to be released. But she didn’t know how to die.

I can relate.

Not about the dying part, but about the truly surrendering and letting go part.

Sleep is, after all, like a little death. And, since the day we got Joseph’s diagnosis, sleep has been difficult for me.

It’s anxiety. When you have a child with ASD, anxiety gnaws at you with the consistency of a rat who has discovered a rotting corpse all to itself.

If you’ve practiced prayer and meditation or other techniques for staying centered and present, then daytime is relatively easy. But when you sleep — ah, then your defenses go down. That’s when anxiety can rear its ugly, poisonous, fang-toothed  head.

In the last week I have stopped running from it. Instead of popping a pill and leading myself through deep relaxation after the dream or the sudden awakening, I have chosen to use instead the light of awareness. I am journaling, asking, why did I wake up this time? What triggered it? What did I dream? Where did my mind go then? How am I feeling?

The findings: at least half the time, it’s a nightmare. Filled with anxiety, terror, and panic.

About Joseph.

In my last nightmare, I was so tired and zombielike that, when I passed by a couple of women and looked at them, my deadened eyes led to them having nightmares.

Wow.

My cousin, Lisa, who also has a son on the spectrum, tells me that there’s chronic anxiety and then there’s situational anxiety. But what if it’s a situation that’s chronic — like autism?

Chronic situational anxiety? asks Lisa.

Whatever its official title, I am amazed at how deep the anxiety goes, and it’s the same for every single other parent I know who has an ASD child.

I know what hasn’t helped: running from the anxiety. Popping a pill to cover it up without even trying to look at it.

Working with the light of awareness is proving to be an amazing thing. It’s like I’m stepping aside and allowing this spotlight to go where it will, to show me what it wants me to understand.

I am humbled to see that, just like every other mortal in this situation, I am so very worried, scared, and fearful.

I am also vulnerable, open, and absolutely sure that I don’t know all the answers.

It’s a mixed bag, just like the rest of life. What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger — but, in this case, strength isn’t about squaring your shoulders and pretending it doesn’t hurt. Strength is about looking into yourself with compassion and awareness. It’s about honoring your process — and it leads to empathy with the process, the journey, of every other human being on this planet.

For me, there is now a new willingness to be aware of the deepest, darkest anxieties. Where it will lead me, I don’t know.

But I am trusting the process. The light of awareness is indeed a light — and isn’t that an aspect of God, after all?

Will this new approach teach me how to let go and sleep again? For three nights in a row now I have closed my eyes to sleep and not opened them again until morning. It’s the first time in over three years that this has happened.

So I think maybe I’m on the right track.

I am also discovering that, when those formerly dark corners are flooded with light, they don’t look nearly as scary.