I was reading a book the other night that described our lives as parents as living in a parallel world. A lot of what we do is very similar to other parents. We work and buy groceries and do school and cook meals and generally do many of the routine things everyone else does. But our days are also filled with therapies and hard work and constant attention to a variety of important things that hardly anyone who hasn’t had our experience would understand. Parallel lines run along side each other but never touch. That’s a pretty good metaphor for how our lives can feel.

I think most of us feel pretty lonely, but that’s where everyone who shares our experience have so much in common. We talk with each other – in person or online – share our challenges and joys, seek new and better ways to help our children thrive, and let each other know that others out there have felt or are feeling what we feel and that things will get better.

We often feel alone, but I think our mission should be to try to find ways of expanding our fellowship and support network and offer resources to help each other. I hope to make this more my focus this year.