I grew up watching MASH and still enjoy the reruns after all these years. One of my favorite characters was Father Mulcahy for his gentle and human demeanor.
As it turns out, we had a lot more in common than I thought. Mr. Christopher was the father to an autistic son, and spent much of his time as an advocate for autism awareness. He also wrote a book about his own experiences called "Mixed Blessings".
William Christopher did things to try and raise awareness as far back as 30 years ago when there was even less knowledge than there is today.
Thanks you sir for your contribution to autism awareness. RIP
I believe that EVERYONE has a gift.
As a society I believe that we have learned to focus more on personal gratification rather than finding the gifts that we have been blessed with. Those gifts are the very things that we can use to not only be personally happy, but to bring joy to others.
My daughter likes to dance. When we attend her recitals we are not expecting that the young girls are going to be the Rockettes, but they are pretty darn good. When they stand on that stage they are smiling and stepping and their spirit ripples through the entire crowd. Whether she realizes it or not she is using her gifts of a beautiful smile and coordinated feet to make other people happy.
I believe that when a painter does a picture it is a piece of themselves that they are laying onto the canvas. It is their emotions that blend with the colors. It is their imagination that creates every line. They are willing to allow that piece of themselves to be placed directly in front of them as though staring straight into a mirror, and then exposing that image to everyone else.
Writing is no different in that regard. Or singing. Or playing a sport. The person willing to use that gift is assuming the risk of "failure" in order to do the thing the were called to do. These are not the only gifts however. For some people their gift is to make other people laugh or smile. For others they may have the gift of telling great stories. Others may be gifted at being compassionate and caring for others. But we need to ask ourselves two very important question. First, what IS my gift? And secondly, am I using that gift to bring happiness to myself and others?
I think of my painter friend Tom. He has a tremendous talent for bringing an entire story to life with a single image. You are not just looking at his subject, but you can feel yourself being in that very place. Tom obviously has taught himself to translate his emotions and vision onto a plain white piece of paper. But what impresses me even far more than that is the joy he receives by placing that work into someone else's hands. We have 2 of his paintings and they mean the world to us because we know the heart that they come from. Right now he is working on a collection which will be auctioned off for a local charity benefiting special needs families.
The point is, in order to make the world a better place we have to use the gifts we have been given to contribute the best way we can. We have to share our knowledge to enhance someone else's life. If you share your gift with others, you can never go wrong, you will never fail. Most importantly, you may touch someone's life in ways that you can never fully understand.
Be well and God bless. Tom
Good evening!
Today our blog surpassed 20,000 page views. That is a number that simply blows me away. I can only hope that within that large number there have been people who found a greater sense of hope. Maybe there were a few people who felt less alone in their struggles. Hopefully it made a lot of people smile. I especially hope that the posts cause readers to think in different ways than they did before.
My goal is that someone out there was better off because of something they read.
Thank you all so much for being a big part of what happens here. God Bless. Tom
Good Evening!!
We were so thrilled to get to have dinner with Tyler tonight. He looked very healthy and was just as happy to see us as we were to see him. As usually we spent about an hour with him over some dinner (this time it was some pizza and fries!). Everyone got to get some hugs and kisses, and pose for some photos.
We noticed that each of these visits are getting more familiar and less stressful for him. When he left with his staffer he was smiling and waiving and ready to return to his new surroundings. He is an adult now and has an adult life.
For us it is so important that he feels the comfort and love of his family around him throughout the holidays. Regardless of where his life leads him, he is still a beloved part of his family.
Seeing him smile was worth more than anything you could ever put in a box or envelope.
Merry Christmas to you all.
Good morning!
Hard to believe it is already Christmas Eve. Regardless of where you are and how/what you celebrate, I wish peace and happiness for us all.
Our traditions with Samantha have become so much fun and gives us a lot to look forward to. Every year we circle the neighborhood to see the lights, bake cookies for Santa, and track Santa on the Norad Santa Tracker. Another tradition is to give Samantha a gift on xmas eve of a new pair of pj's and a movie to watch before heading to bed. She loves her traditions and they are important to her.
Today we are tracking Santa (he is currently visiting my friends in China), going to have dinner with Tyler, and then having my nephew and his wife over tonight. It will be great to see Tyler and make sure he feels our love at Christmas time. We put together a nice photo collage for him, along with some restaurant gift cards to enjoy his favorite dinners. We also have some bubble wrap collected for him to enjoy popping!
I was thinking about what stands out as a Christmas memory with Tyler. I would have to say its the BALL PIT! We used to take Tyler to an indoor playground to play and his favorite thing was jumping into the ball pit. He would laugh and scream and swim all over them. He wanted other people to jump in with him and play. So at Christmas time we bought him an inflatable ball pit and about 300 plastic balls. We set it all up the night before to have it ready for him. We wondered what his reaction would be....
The next morning I had the video camera ready and filmed him slowly coming down the stairs. He turned the corner at the bottom and looked right where the ball pit was sitting. There was a pause. You could see Tyler was trying to wrap his head around what he was seeing. Then....with a scream....he ran straight for the pit and jump in! The great news was how much he loved it. The bad news was he would not be interested in anything else from that point on for quite a while! He took to it like nothing else he was every given.
It didn't take long for the inflatable walls to become a deflated nightmare so we bought him a plastic kiddie pool and filled it up with even more balls. We kept it in his bedroom and every morning for a very long time we woke up to the sound of a kid jumping into a sea of plastic balls. There were even mornings that we went over to his room to find him sleeping in his ball pit. Of course he eventually lost interest but I look back on that very fondly.
To all my readers who care for their special needs children, my wish for you this Christmas is to make a memory that will live fondly in your heart forever. And to feel the warmth and joy of the season.
Be well and God bless. Tom
