{"id":68,"date":"2012-06-19T10:25:40","date_gmt":"2012-06-19T10:25:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/twinmommeetsautism.com\/?p=68"},"modified":"2012-06-19T10:25:40","modified_gmt":"2012-06-19T10:25:40","slug":"climb-every-mountain-the-autism-way","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/twinmommeetsautism.com\/index.php\/2012\/06\/19\/climb-every-mountain-the-autism-way\/","title":{"rendered":"Climb every mountain&#8230;the autism way"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Inspiration comes from many places.\u00a0 Here&#8217;s mine.\u00a0 <a href=\"http:\/\/twinmommeetsautism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/Passaconaway-06-11-12-0021.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-66\" title=\"Passaconaway 06-11-12 002\" src=\"http:\/\/twinmommeetsautism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/Passaconaway-06-11-12-0021.jpg\" alt=\"Views from the Top\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>What a better metaphor for the vision we gain from summiting an autism moment &#8211; and for the sweat and often grueling\u00a0slog up the hill\u00a0that makes it all worthwhile.<\/p>\n<p>As anyone who knows me outside my pseudonym, I love\u00a0hiking.\u00a0 We discovered it one sunny summer day when the boys were about 6 years old.\u00a0 It made them sleep, it was a family activity that everyone could join, and it offered\u00a0immense rewards:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Sleep for the parents.\u00a0(listed first for a reason.)<\/li>\n<li>Accomplishment.<\/li>\n<li>Grins from ear to ear for the boys, who loved the views from the top, the\u00a0breezes and the rewards we built into the journey, like Cheez Jax at the top, and a restaurant dinner at the end.\u00a0 I&#8217;ll never forget W&#8217;s dance of joy atop Mt. Eisenhower, our first 4K peak.\u00a0 It spoke to thrill beyond words &#8211; and the power to transform a life, one step at a time.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I so loved the above photo, taken last weekend, that I made it my iPhone wallpaper.\u00a0 That&#8217;s one of the best things I&#8217;ve done in recent memory.\u00a0\u00a0 It&#8217;s my daily reminder of something I found in which my guys excel &#8211; which connects them to the neurotypical world of likeminded people &#8211; and which has helped them grow.<\/p>\n<p>Two days ago we bagged peaks #37 and #38 of NH&#8217;s Four Thousand Foot or higher peaks.\u00a0\u00a0 There are 48 in all, and we are aiming to complete them so we can join the Four Thousand Foot Club.\u00a0 Over 10,000 hikers are members according to a recent article, and while no one keeps official records on such things,\u00a0 our goal is that the boys become members, which will make them one of very few, if not the first, autistic members.\u00a0 I used to value that possible &#8220;first&#8221; more than I do today.\u00a0 Now, when we have only VERY challenging peaks left, mainly between 10-18 miles long each, it&#8217;s all about the journey.<\/p>\n<p>And isn&#8217;t that the truth, my friends.\u00a0 With autism and in life, it doesn&#8217;t matter the end you journey toward &#8211; the journey is all that matters in the end.<\/p>\n<p>Tomorrow starts our 3-week vacation journey, as in no school for 3 weeks, and no daily structure of the known.\u00a0 I use the word journey quite mindfully. When we hike to a mountain I check the weather, vary the gear, refill the body fuel (ie. snack) supply.\u00a0\u00a0 WIth this vacation mountain, I&#8217;ve made vows, scribbled lists of my objectives and structures for the week,\u00a0tried to get staff and helpers scheduled.\u00a0\u00a0I said prayers too,\u00a0because only God knows how I&#8217;m going to work, manage the boys and deal with\u00a0respite worker\u00a0cancellations which constantly mean I am in a tizzy trying to do all things for everybody.<\/p>\n<p>But no matter what &#8211; there is some mountain ahead of us, and this blog as well as my iPhone talisman are my reminders that we will reach that summit\u00a0&#8211; and with it will come new skills, joy, and peace.<\/p>\n<p>So come along daily with me for the next three weeks.\u00a0 Check back, and join us &#8211; no matter where you are on your path.\u00a0\u00a0 We will enrich each other&#8217;s views from the top.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Inspiration comes from many places.\u00a0 Here&#8217;s mine.\u00a0 What a better metaphor for the vision we gain from summiting an autism moment &#8211; and for the sweat and often grueling\u00a0slog up the hill\u00a0that makes it all worthwhile. As anyone who knows me outside my pseudonym, I love\u00a0hiking.\u00a0 We discovered it one sunny summer day when the [&hellip;]<\/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-68","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/twinmommeetsautism.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68","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=68"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/twinmommeetsautism.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/twinmommeetsautism.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/twinmommeetsautism.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/twinmommeetsautism.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}