“Never let the odds keep you from pursuing what you know in your heart you were meant to do.” – Satchel Paige
As I sit here this evening, I sit and think of all the things that have happened since I last blogged. My husband and I celebrated our anniversary on Cape Cod for two weeks. YES, TWO WEEKS! It was just wonderful to have the time to ourselves. As parents of a child with autism, the days can sometimes be long. When you have time away to rejuvenate it allows you to come back and look at where you are and where you want to go. Our time away was refreshing but also allowed us to ask ourselves, “What is the next step that we need to take?” This question led to another question and yet another and so on….
As we spent time on Cape Cod we saw the endless possibilities of things for our vision, as a family and professionally. We were able to start putting a plan in place for our family as well as My Epilepsy Story. Eagerly waiting our arrival home in Nashville, were three little children and our dog. Needless to say our lives began to get ready for the upcoming series of events to start off the crazy month of August. First was my birthday, my husband’s birthday, the start of school, our daughter’s birthday and then a family weekend away trip that closed out the month of August. As we sat talking with other families at our weekend away we were once again reminded of what we felt we needed to do. I began meeting with a friend and mentor about where I needed to be and what I needed to be doing. In our conversations, the topic of “What is holding you back?” came up several times…as well as, “What is your purpose?” , and many other questions that I will share at a later time.
“The purpose of human life is to serve, and to show compassion and the will to help others.” – Albert Schweitzer
I have learned over the past few years that people don’t come into our lives by accident, but they were meant to cross our paths for a reason. It is in that moment when you meet people that we have to ask ourselves, Am I helping others? Am I fulfilling my purpose? Am I being real with others? Am I going to give it my all with people, without caring what “others” think? These are things that we should all be asking ourselves. As I ponder these questions and many others while I am on this journey of life, I am reminded of my son. One of the things that I know I am to do is to share our story, our story of heartache and joy. Our story of how that in one instance, someone’s life is dramatically changed. My path was changed from what I thought it should have been. Yet, my path is full of many twists and turns that lead me to many people. On this path over the last few years, my son has been called “retarded” by children and even worse adults. Our son has a purpose as well….maybe just maybe his purpose is to show the world how to really live, how we should live without filters and how to be who he is. He shows me that the world is just a world full of people trying to live in a world with filters. Samuel lives without a filter in his life, that is the beauty of autism. He doesn’t see the “I can’t do that!”, he sees the possibilities of all the “I can do that!” He dreams the impossible by ‘the worlds” standards and I am learning that I need to see all the possibilities that are out there. So as I close this blog, “What is your purpose?”, “Are you looking at all the possibilities?” We have many exciting things ahead for My Epilepsy Story so stay tuned! Many possibilities are ahead and I look forward to having you join with us in the next year, six years, 26 years and beyond!
“The two most important days in life are the day you born and the day you discover the reason why.” – Mark Twain
