In my dream, I am trying to find my way home. I am walking. When I ask Siri for directions, she keeps changing routes and finally settles on the one right in front of me. I have to travel through a decaying urban area and climb the steep concrete wall of a dam. I’m scared, but I start climbing anyways. Higher. Higher. Higher. I near the top of the dam and notice water starting to leak through a crack in the wall. A flood gate has been opened. Cold water rushes out in big torrents and I am tossed about. As I fall downwards with the thundering water, I open my mouth every so often to get air and allow myself to be carried downward. Crashing into the churning water at the bottom of the dam, I rise-up, arms in victory, waving my phone around in the air. “I made it! I made It!” I yell. “I’ll show you just what I made it through because I caught it all on video!”
This was my dream the other night. And it is also my family’s reality as we travel with our boy on this journey with autism. The only way home is precipitous and hard and scary, at times. Our climb is fraught with rigid thinking, pervasive anxiety, intense sibling rivalry and hairy family dynamics. We never know when the dam is going to break and we’ll find ourselves sitting in an anxious, angry mess, wondering just what happened. And yet, we keep on climbing. We climb because we love each other. And we know that love surpasses any fear that threatens to thwart this journey that is ours to travel together. To keep climbing means that even when the flood wall opens and we find ourselves thrashing around at the base of the dam, once again, we are alive to tell about it.
While my particular “wall” happens to be autism, I have come to know so many beautiful souls who are climbing different walls. Just as scary. Just as hard or even harder. Cancer. Broken Marriages. Addiction. Chronic Illness. Abuse. Depression. Racism. We all have stories. Stories of a season(s) in our lives during which we discover our souls being hurled against a concrete bottom, weary and unsure of our ability to stand-up and start climbing again. Perhaps, if we can see ourselves as the heroine of our own stories, raising our arms in victory because we are still here to tell about it, we will be more likely to share our experiences with each other. We can replace fear and judgement with “Me, too.” and “Being human is hard. Let’s climb together.” We can conquer our fear with love.
5 comments
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July 12, 2016 at 4:41 pm
nickiebrandenbur
Lovely, just lovely. I would like to share this on the facebook pages for my organization, the Center for Family Involvement. Is that okay with you?
July 12, 2016 at 5:05 pm
kristinblankenship
Absolutely, Nickie! Thank you for sharing and for the wonderful work that your organization does to promote “togetherness.”
July 12, 2016 at 6:13 pm
Cheryl
Oh Kristin…I love your wisdom. Thanks for sharing on a particularly difficult day for us.
July 12, 2016 at 6:37 pm
kristinblankenship
You are welcome, Cheryl! Sending love and prayers to you today…
July 12, 2016 at 7:58 pm
Amos & Alpha Rideout
I just read your new entry. It shows the determination of perserverance, strength, courage, hope and faith that “this too shall pass.” Being human, I know that I can’t escape the difficulties in life, but I am strengthened knowing that I am not alone, and that God will continually sustain me and show me mercy and grace. Thank you for your honesty and wisdom.
Love you, Mom