A faraway yoga studio that I love but can’t visit often just sent a gem of an email that stopped me in my tracks.  I jumped out of a document I was writing, ignored the overdue action items and pondered a truism.

Autism has a skin, and be we parent or autistic loved one, we have to learn to live in it.

For me as a parent, that means tolerating messiness, clutter and over-commitment because I know the outcome is richness, and balance in a way that simply limiting the day’s action items wont’ allow.  I thought about it this morning when I was dog tired and yet couldn’t sleep.  I started the week sleep deprived because I had a weekend jam packed with good things, and so the work things had to get shoved into less space.  At one point the hubby said to me that maybe I should stop overcommitting and making myself so stressed on the weekend.  But thinking back to all we got done, and did – I say – nah.

For W. and J., it means learning to habilitate to your flawed sensory systems.   So when Mom’s got the TV on and J. needs a break, it means J. hides in the corner, or goes into the basement sanctum of his spandex cocoon swing, and finds what he needs.

For W. it means insisting on clothing fabric and styles that make zero sense to the neurotypical, but apparently soothe and eliminate the chafing of common cotton, zippers and fitted waists.

The best part of the email was the reminder:

Be Bold – honor the season you are in, no apologies required!