In So Many Words

My regular readers may have noticed that I haven’t been blogging much lately. Although I have enjoyed the last two-plus years of blogging and all that it entails more than I can say, I am in a place right now where I must focus on some other areas of my life that are sorely in need of attention.

It really comes down to this issue I have been dealing with of recognizing your limitations and accepting them. That is especially hard for me when blogging is something I love, but I have come to accept that for right now I just cannot continue to make it a priority.

I am going to leave this blog up for the time being and may return to it in the future. If nothing else, I hope that it will serve as a resource for other moms and dads who are looking for information on autism — if you are just stumbling upon my blog now, you can use the nested menu at the top of the page or the category list and search features in the right sidebar to see if I have posted about the topic you are looking for. The Archives menu in particular includes a link to a list of my Autism Resource posts and a list of the posts I did for 5 Minutes for Special Needs.

For anyone who wishes to keep in touch, feel free to connect with me on Facebook or email me at trish1225[at]gmail[dot]com. The comments on this post will be open for a few days and then closed.

And, by the way, just because I’m not blogging doesn’t mean I’m not still decluttering, so if you committed to the challenge, you’re not off the hook! Check out Suzanne’s 365 Days of Decluttering blog if you need some additional inspiration to keep going.

For the first Beyond Ordinary Blog Carnival at 5 Minutes for Special Needs, I am pulling out something from my archives. This was originally published on March 24, 2008.

LIFE is the Puzzle

Since entering the world of autism spectrum disorders in December 2004, I have often heard autism referred to as a puzzle, and I have spent the last three-plus years trying to put that puzzle together. Every therapy, every service, every strategy and every treatment has added something to the picture, but instead of getting closer to finishing it, I find myself farther away.

The reality is that, for each of us, LIFE is the puzzle, and it is made up of many pieces–our jobs, our families, our friends and our enemies, our hobbies, our passions, our strengths and our weaknesses, our past and our future, our calling and our mission.

And so I find myself slowly coming to the place where autism no longer defines the size and shape of the final design, but instead is just another piece of the puzzle.

Since entering the world of autism spectrum disorders in December 2004, I have often heard autism referred to as a puzzle, and I have spent the last three-plus years trying to put that puzzle together. Every therapy, every service, every strategy and every treatment has added something to the picture, but instead of getting closer to finishing it, I find myself farther away.

The reality is that, for each of us, LIFE is the puzzle, and it is made up of many pieces–our jobs, our families, our friends and our enemies, our hobbies, our passions, our strengths and our weaknesses, our past and our future, our calling and our mission.

And so I find myself slowly coming to the place where autism no longer defines the size and shape of the final design, but instead is just another piece of the puzzle.

Growing up in my family, when you were putting a puzzle together you kept the box cover out the whole time to help you figure out the right way to do it. You also started with just the edges and put the entire border together before even looking at the center pieces. In my husband’s family, you put all the pieces out on the table, put the box away and start putting together whatever looks promising. Eventually it all comes together and looks good, but it stresses me out the whole time!

I feel like my whole life has been spent trying to figure out all the answers and the right way to do something before I even put the first two pieces together. In my head, I realize you have to put yourself out there and do the best you can, but the rest of me always tries to pull back to safety. So, although it may not seem like a big step to most people, I am starting this venture without having read up on all the technical aspects of blogging or even the social/etiquette rules of the blog world. I am going to learn as I go along.

So, that’s it for today; tonight I am seeing a friend who is moving far away and although gatherings of many people I do not know make me very uneasy, I am going to put away the box for now and focus on the important parts of the picture.