By Kelly Wilton
Just when I think that people ‘might get it’, I realise they don’t get it. At all.
It’s just little things, you know? Like trying to get a functional morning routine together. Sounds easy. Rise 15 minutes before everyone else, have a quiet cup of coffee before the rest of the house wakes, get some headspace before it’s all systems go.
The other morning I did just that. I woke up to an awfully quiet house… no murmurings from the kids, iPads or any other devices. I tiptoed downstairs thinking what bliss it would be to make a cup of coffee and sneak back upstairs to drink it in peace, whilst jotting away in my journal (if I could find a pen that worked, otherwise I planned on just drinking the coffee).
I walked gingerly into my kitchen to notice the light streaming through the back windows. ‘What a glorious morning’, I thought to myself. Then it caught my eye. The small, sleek, pale figure pushing the pedals of his bike in the back garden as though to somehow ‘warm them up’.
It was my son, starkers; naked, wearing nothing but his birthday suit, right there in the garden. I stood and watched him for a moment; lucky for us (and him) we live in a warm climate so he was at least warm and comfortable. As he spun the training wheels on the back of his BMX bike, he positioned himself ever so strategically; much like a squirrel in winter time gathering his nuts, he positioned quickly so that he did not squash his sensitive regions and began riding.
He looked up and waved! Of course, by now, I’m sure you’re thinking – how long are you going to watch him while he’s locked outside your house?! What kind of mother are you?! (A special needs mama if you must ask!). I didn’t wait long, I assure you! I went over and unlocked the door. He used his words and gestures to let me know that he’d opened the back door but it inadvertently closed it behind him and locked himself out. NAKED!
NAKED! He proudly declared as he beamed at me in all his glory!
As I calmly ushered him inside to get some clothes on, my mind is silently racing at how far he’s come with his ability to make do with a situation that hasn’t exactly gone to plan, but to also just revel in the moment of the warm early morning sun, tinkering happily on his bike. A moment of joy.
I wonder to myself, surely there are other people out there that have these kinds of stories? There must be, it’s not just us! I know there is a world of families who have little anecdotes to daily life where our kids with their special needs, special abilities to share their joy and unique gifts with the world, let us in to their world, especially their immediate families and so anyone outside this realm simply misses out.
Sometimes I wonder if other people have absolutely any idea how incredible it is to partake in this world, even if it’s just for a split moment before the day starts?
Maybe that’s the real beauty of the day; that he’s teaching me in that moment. ‘Breathe in the moments’. Don’t get caught up in the fairy floss of it all, the noise of what we should, could, would be doing otherwise. Maybe that moment, which you could never plan in a million years, was exactly what I needed and he needed in that point in time.
So I say to you – take it all in your stride mama, or no strides at all, if that’s what you prefer.
