Autism feels like blue

April is Autism Awareness Month.  I work with and love many people with autism and their caregivers.  This poem is for them. Autism feels like blue Blue is mystery is ocean, is midnight, is forever, and darkness, and shining sky, blue is transparent glass and tastes like sadness sometimes but sounds like blueberries covering small...

My work is to always remember this

I wrote most of this a few years ago after reading this article for the first time.  I have edited it some for confidentiality and brevity.  What is your work? ****** My work is to know this: the young man who punched a hole in my office wall and told me every week for 6...

Day 7: I see that. I got you. No worries.

I evaluate a lot of older kiddos for whom someone has raised the question of autism spectrum disorder. My job in this particular evaluation is to determine whether autism is an accurate diagnosis for the child or young person, which typically involves interviewing the parent, reviewing records, and administering the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule, 2nd...

Day 5: I tried to fly once, but I just falled down

I recently read this prayer by Rev. Elizabeth Nguyen. It’s called, “For When I Really Don’t Want to Learn This.” Spirit, I would really rather not learn this. Didn’t think I needed to. I thought someone else could do it. Thought a leader was coming to do it. Thought the young people could do it....

Day 2: This is all (and also everything)

(1)    Since early this morning, I have had Nahko and Medicine for the People’s song “Warrior People” going through my head.  Specifically, I have had these lines playing over and over:  “…I'm just a human being on another fucking journey. I'm on a journey, on a journey I'm on a journey, on a journey I'm...

On what I never learned in grad school; or, “I don’t think it’s very safe to live here.”

Things I never learned in graduate school: On the days when national disasters happen, you will spend your day talking to frightened children.  Your 9AM patient will be scared to go around any crowds: a crowded Panera might be too dangerous because there could be a person with a gun.  Your 1PM patient believes ISIS...

Too Big to Contain: A post on Naming and responsibility

I am in the process of re-reading Madeleine L’Engle’s “Time Quintet” and just finished reading The Wind In the Door.  In this book, Meg (the protagonist) is charged with finding a way of defeating the evil force – the Echthroi.  This evil is killing the planet and her brother and the way to defeat them...

Heart-Work: “Flare up like a flame”

God speaks to each of us as he makes us, then walks with us silently out of the night. These are the words we dimly hear: You, sent out beyond your recall, go to the limits of your longing. Embody me. Flare up like a flame and make big shadows I can move in. Let...