Coping

Three Words for 2012

January 1, 2012

As I’ve mentioned in the past, instead of New Year’s Resolutions I do Three Words. These three words will act as both a sort of mission statement and a set of guiding principles that will focus my efforts and goals for the year. (See my words for 2011 and 2010.) So I’ve selected my three [...]

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2012 – An Invitation to the Year of Getting Your Crap Together

December 16, 2011

The last couple of years I’ve done Three Words instead of New Year’s Resolutions. I’ve found this to be enormously useful, especially when compared to the incredibly low bar set by the complete lack of success we have ever had with our Resolutions. This is the time when I like to review the year and [...]

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Who We Are

December 1, 2011

This is your story and mine. This is who we are. You know fear. No, you know pure terror. You have discovered unimaginable joys. You feel everything. Intensely. Completely. There are days your soul catches fire. No emotion is beyond you. You will always be parenting without a net. But it can be done. It [...]

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A Journey of a Thousand Miles

November 29, 2011

“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” – Lao-Tzu Today I achieved something momentous, and I almost missed it. I completed my 1,000th mile since I decided to start running again and taking control of my health in August 2010. I’ve run well over 800 of those miles in 2011, including [...]

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Letter to a Struggling Parent

November 15, 2011

To my friend and fellow wanderer in this wilderness, I wanted to write you this letter because I know you’ve been clinging to the end of your rope, digging your fingernails into jagged holds until they break and bleed, desperate to not fall. I know you’re so damn tired you can hardly stand anymore. I [...]

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What Does ‘Strong’ Mean to You?

October 14, 2011

I’m going to ask the question in the title of this post again at the end, but I want to first bring up a few things I’ve thought about concerning what ‘strong’ means in our lives as parents of autistic and special needs children. I’ve had a lot of conversations with people about how difficult [...]

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Our Last Trip to the Dentist – or That Thing I Haven’t Wanted to Talk About

October 10, 2011

There’s no nice way to say this. Our last trip to the dentist a couple months ago was traumatizing. I haven’t really wanted to talk much about it. It was that bad. Let me preface the rest of this by saying that it had nothing to do with the dentist or the staff. Unlike our [...]

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Proprioception and Calming Techniques

September 14, 2011

I don’t know what percentage of our day is concerned with managing our J-Man’s sensory challenges, but I’m sure it’s a lot. Just about every autistic child I know struggles with one or more of their major senses even under ‘normal’ conditions. Of course, this can make already stressful situations when they occur even more [...]

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