When planets align

When planets align and the sun shines all day and we never have long nights and short days I think my son will do a lot better.

The seasons and the changes in temperature, daylight and sunlight seem to have a profound effect on my son but also other children and teens with autism. They cue into the changes acutely and more distinctly than their neuro typical  human counterparts.

Much like there is a feeling that animals can be perceptive and predict tsunamis and earthquakes, I believe our children can also be effected by those things that only minutely bother the rest of us. 

For the past month or so when working out in the barn studio, Andrew begins looking at the sky at around 4 oclock or 4:30 p.m.  Staring, looking, gazing and smiling. I am not sure why. He seems to wait for this change in dimension, change in lighting and welcome the dusk. He scans the horizon, tree tops and sky line. He watches geese fly overhead sometimes smiling, sometimes just gazing quietly and seemingly pensively. What is he thinking? Oftenimes a sly smile will spread across his face as if he knows something we do not.

Does the blanket of dusk soothe him? Does he know then that there is a peacefulness to the earth a stillness that he enjoys?  I have never seen him do this before in all his years. This is the first. But... the moon does seem bigger this winter, even to me. When I have walked from barn to house the moon has been huge and looming. Perhaps creating a magnetic pull that those with autism are sensitive to on some level.  These intense lunar cycles causing some influence on personality?

I am not a believe in hocus pocus science. I am a believer in science, but I am also open minded and a believer  in those  things that nature delivers that sometimes we cannot explain.  Animals govern themselves strictly by moons, tides, and seasons. There is a natural philosophy to that which nature provides as a guide.

We see an increased need for sameness and repetition, the amount of which we have not seen before.  So, we wait and watch and will see what spring brings.

I love the early spring, when it is still chilly, buds are beginning, birds are singing and there is just a hint of what is to come... in this case I am betting that with spring, and all that it brings with it that we  will also see Andrew begin to focus and stabilize in his moods.  It will be incredibly interesting if we are right and that April brings about change and  a gentle settling of his mood.

He continues to work in the barn. We modify his tasks to suit each day's needs, and he loves to rollerblade!  That brings great joy!  We are thankful for rollerblades...

In the meantime there is always Valentines Day! 

Amen and good night

cate