My good friend H, bless her, invited me and M and Jonah over to her house tonight and Thursday night to swim. It’s all for Jonah, of course, and I soak up every moment of his dolphin-happiness; at his request, swimming sans swimsuit again.
At one point he came climbing, seemingly happily, up the stairs of the pool and onto the deck, where he ran past me and went to dig his little fingers into H’s son D’s face. We managed to avoid any injury, but only by a hair. We re-directed Jonah back to the pool, and brave little D spent just a moment hiding behind his mom before smiling again and throwing balls into the water for Jonah to play with. He’s a sweet little boy, almost 4. I marvel at his words – his brain and how it works so differently from Jonah’s.
It’s always a swim-and-run, as Jonah decides abruptly when it is time to leave and simply starts heading toward the car – but this time Jonah scored himself a hot dog and some black soda as well, the little scamp.
When M and I got home, he surprised me by having DVR’ed old-school Bugs Bunny cartoons, and one of them was my absolute favorite – with Marvin-the-Martian:
Now Lewis Black is on TV; M and I saw him at the Palace Theater last year. He just said: “The Republican party has bad ideas, and the Democrats have no ideas.”
I think he’s right.
Anyway, I feel better tonight. I feel grateful.
The Never Normal 
Lovely of her to invite his happiness, even if it requires extra guarding, and being on-guard, from the rest of you.
We have the opportunity to set Ash up for aquatherapy, but are first trying to find a swim instructor familiar with working with children with Autism, and coverage of some sort for that. Otherwise, we fear, so far as Ash is concerned, we will have taught him that it is ok to “play” in the water….before he has any water safety skills. We still don’t have any leads so I fear we won’t get anywhere with it this summer, but I am not giving up hope. He has expressed interest, it’s good for safety, it would be good for his strength and tone, and also sensory therapy, so…
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I am grateful that you are grateful. And I know from personal experience that feeling and expressing gratitude completely changes one’s life. A friend recently told me, “Gratitude is the doorway to Divinity,” and I think she’s right. Love’s coming at you from Woodstock.
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Nothing like a swim, a hot dog and a black soda to give you that relaxed summer feeling.
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hi amy
you are entering into a new phase of your life with jonah. the first year after dominic went to live at his residential school i was filled with a new kind of despair. it wasnt the day to day living with him and his violent, destructive spiral, it was the day to day living with the fact that i had to admit defeat and to admit that i am only human and need help. every week i cried the whole ride home after visiting him and was angry at myself and the whole situation. he cried too that he wasnt leaving with us to come home. but, gradually he eased into his new living situation and the more content he seemed, the easier it was for me to leave. he also came to learn, i believe, that we were coming back in a few days to see him and in his non verbal way, seemed to communicate with us that it was ok we were going, because he knew he would see us again shortly. quite a few staff came to know and love dominic and helped him in more ways then we couldve. its been 2yrs and i know i’ve made the right decision. he is more active and gets to do far more socially then he couldve if he had stayed at home. hang in there, it will take time but i believe you will feel the same way in the end.
love, eileen
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🙂
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