Memories and Milestones
Please, reader -- let me indulge in some motherly memories today. I took a reprieve from work and decided to organize a few photos. Adam just turned four and I realized that spring cleaning also meant organizing -- that milestones happen as quickly as the years pass and I don't want to forget anything. Also, a few people with children with autism have been asking me about Adam as a younger child. It got me thinking about why I named this blog Joy of Autism -- how Adam is a joy and autism is a part of who he is. With Enya softly playing in the background, and my back door open to sunshine and cool spring air, I began cutting and pasting -- with a few new "books" to last many lifetimes: the photo albumn.
"Lay your sleeping head, my love.
Human on my faithless arm;
Time and fevers burn away
Individual beauty from
Thoughtful children, and the grave
Proves the child ephemeral:
But in my arms till the break of day
Let the living creature lie,
Mortal, guilty, but to me,
The entirely beautiful...
...Let the winds of dawn that blow
Softly round your dreaming head
Such a day of sweetness show
Eye and knocking heart may bless,
Find the mortal world enough;
Noons of dryness see you fed
By the involuntary powers,
Nights of insult let you pass
Watched by every human love.
---Excerpt from W.H. Auden's "Lullaby"
"Lay your sleeping head, my love.
Human on my faithless arm;
Time and fevers burn away
Individual beauty from
Thoughtful children, and the grave
Proves the child ephemeral:
But in my arms till the break of day
Let the living creature lie,
Mortal, guilty, but to me,
The entirely beautiful...
...Let the winds of dawn that blow
Softly round your dreaming head
Such a day of sweetness show
Eye and knocking heart may bless,
Find the mortal world enough;
Noons of dryness see you fed
By the involuntary powers,
Nights of insult let you pass
Watched by every human love.
---Excerpt from W.H. Auden's "Lullaby"
7 Comments:
Beautiful photos! Most of them look professional...or someone is just a great photographer! I'd love to hear about Adam as a baby, your first inclination that something was amiss, your progression to finding autism "joyful".
It's in the book I've been working on. But don't worry, I won't make you buy it to find out.
I'm a sucker for books written by parents of autistic children (just ask my husband. He's about to take away my credit card!). So don't worry, your book will soon be on my book shelf.
Ya...if I can just get it done! ;)
Thanks for your support!! -- Oh, and I always tell my husband that money is best spent on books. Food for the mind.
Lovely photos--they are definitely full of joy. (And they shatter that ridiculous myth about autistics being cold, emotionless, and unattatched).
I confess: my favorite is of Adam with a book of Shakespeare.
Yes...it was before we received "the diagnosis." At around 11 months of age, Adam new all of his letters and numbers up to 10. He was (and is) clearly hyperlexic, but back then we thought we had a "baby genius." I still believe he has some amazing abilities, and he has the ability to pick things up quickly. So, in my eyes at least, he is still "amazing," in every way.
Just so I don't sound like a totally enamoured, in-the-clouds mum, I have also spent time with people who's abilities are more subtle, shall we say, yet I am still amazed at everyone's unique abilities, on all facets of the human spectrum.
Estee,
How beautiful! The poem and the pics. I love the one of you with your pregnant belly sexily spilling out of the open robe. I remember how sexy I felt, when I was pregnant, just bursting with life. This is gorgeous.
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