Today was a great day– so great that I am publishing an old poem ( I really didn’t leave enough time to write). My experience is that when the day is good with my guy- it can be so good that it is hard to remember that there are ever challenging days. That might be partly do to my usually positive and optimistic attitude, combined with so much love for this child of mine. Sometimes in the thick of challenge, however, it is the little things that give me strength and the glimpse of what I hope will be. The raw truth of it is that sometimes I just hang on for a calmer tomorrow…
End of the Day
I tuck you in as the sun
Slips behind the mountains
A quiet ending to a tumultuous day
A cuddle and the day’s stresses are forgotten
With the clean smell of your hair
And your now heartfelt “I love you mom”
I hold you as close as I hold to hope
While the moon puts another day to bed
Leah Kelley
September 13, 2010
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30 Days of Autism is a project designed to fight stigma, promote civil rights, and increase understanding and acceptance for those who process and experience the world differently.
© Leah Kelley, Thirty Days of Autism, (2011)
Thirty Days of Autism 
This really reminds me of my son! Of my three children, he definitely is the source of both greatest frustration and greatest joy. Is it politically correct to admit that? I love all my kids equally. They are indeed equal, but, like man and wife, they are equal but different. The energy presented by most intense child permeates those around him so that if he is angry, he tries to make the whole world angry and if he is full of joy, he tries to make the whole world joyful.
After the recent tsunamis in Japan, we went hiking to a waterfall and he became absolutely terrified that it would become a tsunamis that would engulf us all and wipe us into oblivion. He managed to strike fear into an older sibling and even invoke tears in both of them in a period of about ten seconds.
All my joy. All my pain.
Khalil Gibran says it best:
“Your joy is your sorrow unmasked.
And the selfsame well from which your laughter rises was oftentimes filled with your tears.
And how else can it be?
The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.
Is not the cup that holds your wine the very cup that was burned in the potter’s oven?
And is not the lute that soothes your spirit, the very wood that was hollowed with knives?
When you are joyous, look deep into your heart and you shall find it is only that which has given you sorrow that is giving you joy.
When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight.
Some of you say, “Joy is greater thar sorrow,” and others say, “Nay, sorrow is the greater.”
But I say unto you, they are inseparable.
Together they come, and when one sits, alone with you at your board, remember that the other is asleep upon your bed.
Verily you are suspended like scales between your sorrow and your joy.
Only when you are empty are you at standstill and balanced.
When the treasure-keeper lifts you to weigh his gold and his silver, needs must your joy or your sorrow rise or fall.”
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…beautiful and coincidentally written on my birthday! It’s great meeting you and I look forward to reading more.
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