When you watch other children, the same age as yours…when you watch other children in the movies, through the streets, wherever you might be, do you ponder? Do you compare?
Do you wonder what life would be if only things were just a little different? Do you wonder what your largest struggles could be? Stop for a moment and consider…what do you really think would be your biggest worry, your stressor that runs with you, haunting your days…haunting your nights?
Children Playing by Rakka via Flickr
Do you yearn for the day your little one will run the streets in a group of friends up to what kids should be up to, just before crossing the line of no good? Do you wish gatherings were possible, carefree laughter escaping you while you banter with other adults, watching your children run and play, creating the memories of childhood?
Do you stop in the midst of a nights dinner, note how your assisting with feeding, redirection, shifting seating arrangements, removing items that appeal to the instant of lack of impulse control, awaiting what will trigger the next meltdown…the next rage? Is a movie playing? Are the lights off? Is everything in its proper place – as expected? Are there a variety of meals to satisfy needs and allergies?
Do you drift…what if it were not that way? Do you try to bend your mind to picture how that would be? Or are you beyond that? Are you so far into the life of special needs that those possibilities no longer enter your mind? Or, every once in a while, when the stress of the fight gets too great, overwhelming, drowning you, eliciting your cycle of grief or leaving you looking for light….do you picture what you thought would be?
Or do you see…that things are exactly how they’re supposed to be?