Today, I was working with my Superintendent's wife, Becky, on converting some video of their daughter's wedding onto a DVD. A rather easy thing for me was quite a relief to them. Through this process, I remembered that Becky had a history of working with children in the autism spectrum and special needs. As we discussed special needs children, Miles, modern research and how folks perceive autism, I was again amazed at what Miles has done for Carrie, Zen and I. As challenging as it can be (an understatement at times), Carrie and I realize and acknowledge on a regular basis what an amazement Miles is. Through his perception of the world, joy, daily evolutions, fixations, habits, quirks, coolness and so on, I have gained an amazing view into a world I never knew. It's a world constructed of wonder, love and pure amazement that something as cool as Miles exists .. and he is our boy. Carrie and I feel that to the elemental fiber of our cells, soul and collective heart. He opens chambers of understanding and fascination that I never knew were remotely possible. This is the flipside to how parents describe what it's like raising a child with special needs. Usually, we are approached by a variety of folks that ask, 'How do you do it?'. Our responses likely don't capture the magic of what we get to experience in this life of ours because we have a beautiful boy like Miles to enrich every breath we take. I want to make sure that was voiced, known and resonates through this blog and our continued dissemination of our journey with Miles. We love him madly. Finally, I felt hugely compelled to write this missive after getting several books from Becky on a woman named Temple Grandin who wrote several books on Autism from an adult's perspective. She is a fully functioning autistic woman who has a Ph.D from the University of Illinois and is viewed as an expert on animal sciences in America. It's uniquely cool what can come out of a conversation, what can come out of love and what can come out of the gift of a boy like Miles on each step we create in this hugely interesting life.
Thursday, June 19, 2008
The Amazement of Life through Miles Child
Today, I was working with my Superintendent's wife, Becky, on converting some video of their daughter's wedding onto a DVD. A rather easy thing for me was quite a relief to them. Through this process, I remembered that Becky had a history of working with children in the autism spectrum and special needs. As we discussed special needs children, Miles, modern research and how folks perceive autism, I was again amazed at what Miles has done for Carrie, Zen and I. As challenging as it can be (an understatement at times), Carrie and I realize and acknowledge on a regular basis what an amazement Miles is. Through his perception of the world, joy, daily evolutions, fixations, habits, quirks, coolness and so on, I have gained an amazing view into a world I never knew. It's a world constructed of wonder, love and pure amazement that something as cool as Miles exists .. and he is our boy. Carrie and I feel that to the elemental fiber of our cells, soul and collective heart. He opens chambers of understanding and fascination that I never knew were remotely possible. This is the flipside to how parents describe what it's like raising a child with special needs. Usually, we are approached by a variety of folks that ask, 'How do you do it?'. Our responses likely don't capture the magic of what we get to experience in this life of ours because we have a beautiful boy like Miles to enrich every breath we take. I want to make sure that was voiced, known and resonates through this blog and our continued dissemination of our journey with Miles. We love him madly. Finally, I felt hugely compelled to write this missive after getting several books from Becky on a woman named Temple Grandin who wrote several books on Autism from an adult's perspective. She is a fully functioning autistic woman who has a Ph.D from the University of Illinois and is viewed as an expert on animal sciences in America. It's uniquely cool what can come out of a conversation, what can come out of love and what can come out of the gift of a boy like Miles on each step we create in this hugely interesting life.
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