My son is in a four week Extend School Year program this summer. The children in the program have a variety of official diagnoses: autism, Down's, cerebral palsy, ADD/ADHD, speech delay. Today the hundred or so kids, of varying ages, who participate in the program held a Fourth of July parade. They marched around the playground area to piped in patriotic music, wearing red, white and blue paper hats they made, each class with a different design.
At one point in the parade, a boy, older and bigger than my son, broke off from the group and came out into the crowd where he grabbed my skirt and stood looking down at it. He had a bandage over one eye, from injury or surgery, and the bandaged eye was toward me, the good eye toward my skirt. At another time in my life, I would have felt anxious or fearful or embarrassed to have a strange child, a child with "something clearly wrong with him" come wordlessly up to me and grab my clothing. I would have looked around for a parent or a teacher or some other adult who could help me. I might have told the boy, perhaps even shrilly, to go away, to get back to what he was supposed to be doing, to stop acting in a way that was strange, unexpected, frightening.
But that didn't occur to me today. Today, I stretched out my hand and offered it to him. He grabbed my hand with pudgy fingers and pressed my hand into his soft, warm palm. And together we walked back into the parade. We walked hand in hand for a while, until he let go, still without ever a word or a glance at me, and started walking along on his own, examining his plastic flag, twisting it around the stick.
And as I drove home, I thought: isn't that what we all need? To approach one another without fear. To offer and to accept a gentle guiding hand back onto the path when we get lost or stray. To hold hands on the journey, while it lasts.
You are so right! I think God gave me a child with special needs because he wants me to open my eyes and not judge. Great post.
Yes, it is exactly what we need.
And you are a beautiful human being.
Peace and Love,
Scout
You are so correct. Absolutly!
Is it cool how God can teach lessons with the most unlikely and humblest of teachers.
It seems like Gods lessons always leave an impact on the heart.
it's so sipmle but yes that's exactly what we need. I know I need it.
You're absolutely right, it's like being made into a brand new person without any effort, a side effect - one thats beneficial to everyone.
Best wishes
Those types of chance meetings are my favorite and leave me with the best memories. I feel like beautiful people like that child, or I guess any child for that matter, I feel that they are given to us from God. They are innocence and purity and will remain so for the duration of their lives and it is beautiful. I feel such sorrow for people that cannot see it. They are missing such a beautiful part of our world.
The human touch is one of the most powerful healers. I had just graduated with my BA when I was 'pushed' into the position of being a social worker for the developmentally disabled. I was terrified...for I had never been around individuals that I considered 'so much different as me'....now when I look back at my resume...that was the most awesome job I ever had, not counting my present day teaching position. For they are no different from me...they crave love and attention just as much as I do...just as much as we all do...and they ask for it in the most simple of gestures...an outstretched hand. Awesome post...funny how the areas in which we want to grow get overpowered by the areas in which we 'need' to grow.
That was such a bful thot..
landed up on ur blog accidentally...but loving every bit of it...
cheers
Wow Mary. We seem to have had some similar experiences. My son too is in a extended school year program and in 2008 I was asked to speak there as a mother of a child with Autism to special education professionals such as aids, teachers and assistants. After the parent panel I went outside to meet up with my nephew who was learning how to get over his anxiety towards riding the bus. His aids took him up to the bus and did baby steps everyday. Every new row was met with praise and treats. That day I was standing in the aisle praising his efforts when a strange hand from my left reached out and took my hand. When I looked down a boy around the age of 11 or 12 in a harness staring straight ahead out the windshield of the bus was the one who had grabbed me. He said nothing and didn't look at me but just rocked. I was so overwhelmed with emotion that I just wanted to cry. I sat down next to him his hand still in mine till I had to go. I will never forget him and feel so honored that he reached out to me. This story still gets me teary eyed. These kids are amazing.