{"id":120,"date":"2012-08-08T09:13:37","date_gmt":"2012-08-08T09:13:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/twinmommeetsautism.com\/?p=120"},"modified":"2012-08-08T09:13:37","modified_gmt":"2012-08-08T09:13:37","slug":"trails-trials-and-the-road-forward","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/twinmommeetsautism.com\/index.php\/2012\/08\/08\/trails-trials-and-the-road-forward\/","title":{"rendered":"Trails, Trials and The Road Forward"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Trails are spelled much like “trials” for a reason.\u00a0 They’re one in the same – it’s just an adjustment of letter, or an attitude, or a feeling or two.\u00a0 Over the past two weeks we’ve surmounted two major hikes – Isolation and Owl’s Head – that are accomplishments for any person, let alone those challenged with autism.\u00a0 I’m still glowing with pride over my little wonder boys and their ability to put one foot in front of the other, and move forward.\u00a0\u00a0 Pardon the moment of parental crowing, dear readers.\u00a0 When life is tough, the hubby and I say to each other that while our boys can’t read, struggle to count and can’t open a soda can or a granola bar independently – they sure can hike up the mountain.<\/p>\n

And that’s what we are all doing, truly.\u00a0 My photos of our journeys usually don’t do justice either to the natural beauty of the day, or to my sons inner beauty, since their ability to look at a camera and focus is limited.\u00a0 This leads to lots of “funny nose face” images, or others where they’re behaving in ways I’d rather not memorialize, like the hands going to the pants and so forth.\u00a0 But look closer.\u00a0 The top of the above image shows Boot Spur, a side peak south of Mt. Washington where those who struggled to emerge from forest and shadow are treated to a 360-degree view of the vast beyond. We sit looking at our future, knowing there was about another 2 hours beyond that to the actual destination of Isolation, and yet seeing the path that we all know is very doable – with views every step of the journey to delight.<\/p>\n

Today is a weekday, workday, and busy day.\u00a0\u00a0 Disrobing is still part of our daily trek with W., and each day we continue to work\u00a0on behavior-training to help him learn to keep his clothes on where it’s appropriate.\u00a0\u00a0 Self-stimulatory noises are still part of J.’s path, as are occasional slaps to himself, and a tendency for hands to stray to the private parts\u00a0–\u00a0behaviors that rise with stress levels.\u00a0 Each boy’s list of activities of daily living they must grow loom as large as that mountain.\u00a0 At 5:10 am as I write this, the day’s to-do list has only begun, and I’m already half way through the coffee pot.<\/p>\n

Yet there is a trail, and it is only a trial if I misspell that word.\u00a0 It is leading forward, as surely as all others we summitted.\u00a0 And there is a view to savor always, if we keep looking up to see it.\u00a0 My challenged boys had the fortitude to spend 12 hours of one foot in front of the hour to get to what you’re viewing above- 14 hours, in the case of Owl’s Head – even when the\u00a0pebbles beneath them\u00a0slid and they were tired or afraid.\u00a0\u00a0 That’s a reminder to me at least of their patience, strength, and perhaps even trust in me as we march on toward capability and happiness.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Trails are spelled much like “trials” for a reason.\u00a0 They’re one in the same – it’s just an adjustment of letter, or an attitude, or a feeling or two.\u00a0 Over the past two weeks we’ve surmounted two major hikes – Isolation and Owl’s Head – that are accomplishments for any person, let alone those challenged […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-120","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/twinmommeetsautism.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/twinmommeetsautism.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/twinmommeetsautism.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/twinmommeetsautism.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/twinmommeetsautism.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/twinmommeetsautism.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/twinmommeetsautism.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/twinmommeetsautism.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/twinmommeetsautism.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}