Take In The Beauty Of A Single Moment

Find joy every day

Walking through the doorway, returning home from work, a new sound enters my soul: my neuroatypical child’s laughter.

This sound isn’t one that I hear often, making it all the more precious.

As a parent of a neuroatypical child, your perspective changes — drastically. The concept of “friend” is heightened and the joys that many seem to take for granted, simply because they don’t know any different, emerge from the simplest actions.

When my 12-year old responds “hello” and his voice is nearly audible, there is a sense of pride as I reflect on how far he has come. He is making progress from the days of not responding, looking down and away, or abruptly turning in the opposite direction the second someone greets him.

Adrienne Parkhurst, I know you get it.

The gift my son has thanks to his “neuroatypical-ness”, is that “friend” is honest and genuine. This is a gift that may actually save him a ton of heartache in life.

The gift our family has to homeschool him now is helping him develop critical life social skills, instead of being challenged with anxiety and struggling to navigate a sea of students. When again will he need to navigate such large crowds to be a “successful” adult?

A school filled with hundreds of students is an unlikely environment he’ll need to face in the future. So, developing social skills in environments that he will face, like during a paper route and customer service orientated interactions, is a far greater investment in time and energy — and makes the financial decisions (e.g. being a single income family so one parent can stay home) worthy investments.

We (my husband and I) are very open with the parents in my son’s small circle; we have to be. He is still young and children can be cruel.

“I am sure it was an accident,” my son excuses the erases being thrown at him in the days he attended traditional public school.

“Mom, they didn’t mean to hit me in the head with a pen.”

“They? — I follow up. “More than one?”

“Yes. I don’t know how many. At least five,” my son shared as if this is all okay.

“It happened all the time. This is why I like homeschool. Accidents like that don’t happen anymore,” my child’s innocence affirms our decision to homeschool.

The (relative) extensive vocabulary and ability to converse since changing my son’s daily learning environment is not lost on me.

He is developing confidence and this is translating to social skills.

We are at the stage in life where we engage parents of children who might interact with my son, especially when he calls them a friend. He has two (friends) that he regularly interacts with now, and is slowly building relationships with three others.

These parents are very aware of the nuances of my child, and we have an open and honest dialogue about interactions that may require coaching. For example, my son’s “supersonic” hearing — as my youngest child calls it.

“Mom, ‘Zay’ has a superpower. It’s his hearing.”

“True. Do you think your big brother has any other superpowers?”

“Yup! Art. And, his heart. He has the biggest heart ever.”

It’s not uncommon for my son to bolt or to cover his ears and start to cry as sounds often paralyze him. His friends give him space and once he is able to catch his breath, they resume playing, like nothing affected the energy in the room.

This sight is even more powerful to experience in person than any words I type on a keyboard can describe.

These are the moments when you step back and realize the beauty in life — and people who make it truly magical.

A younger brother who idolizes his big brother for all of the right reasons.

A (small) community of people who see my child for the remarkable human he is and appreciate all that he has to offer.

Takeaways

No matter what today or tomorrow might bring, I invite you to pause, reflect and take hold of one moment or sound that lets you feel joy.

Close your eye.

Breathe.

Take in the beauty of a single moment.

If one moment, walking through a door to hear my child’s laughter, brings this much joy — imagine the gift each day brings:

Every day has the potential to be filled with many of these tiny moments, provided we take some time to enjoy them.

What moment brought you joy today?

I invite you to take a moment to share in the comments, reflect, and gift yourself with the opportunity to hold onto that moment a little longer.

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