It's been a while since I've shared my gardening snapshots... Life with Autism has been a bit of a downer this week.... My HOPEISM is about as wilted as my elephant ear shown in the picture. Brandon flung a glass bowl and cut his leg, we had to go to a specialist for a potential shoulder injury and found out he has arthritis in shoulders from repeated trauma...like dozens and dozens of falls from seizures. Twenty year old young men should not have arthritis in their shoulders from trauma. Then to top it off the very next day he fell out of bed and broke off the bonded portion of his front tooth that had to be bonded a few years ago because of a fall......from seizures....... It was a time consuming frustrating ordeal just trying to get the last dental procedure under anesthesia, and that was two months ago. Now I get to do it all over again, but this time, while being on that year long waiting list, I'll get to be reminded of how much autism sucks each time Brandon smiles and I see that missing tooth. I think I should title this post
Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events. It certainly describes our Life with Autism. This week has been mental whiplash. I can't believe all Brandon must go through. It's incomprehensible.
And then there's my "other" son as we call him. This has been an incredibly blessed week for him. I want to just let loose and be so incredibly excited about that for him, but there's a part of me that tempers it in preparation for the inevitable crush that has seemed to be our pattern of late. I have to look up to the heavens and shake my head at times like this week at how my boys are so opposite, why everything must be a roller coaster of ups and downs. One extreme to the other. There can never be even keel. There will never be boredom. I will always live on the edge of crazy yet not too far from sane. I'm not sure whether to laugh or cry at that.
But I guess how God has been speaking to me through the beauty of nature and my gardens, is in the reminder of how we can't lose sight of the moments that take our breath away because of the few that knock the breath out of us. This week I have experienced things
bite the dust so to speak in my garden, and I've had other things just beginning their journey to harvest. I can't keep staring at the things in my garden that aren't so great, aren't that beautiful, and forget to be thankful for the things that have such incredible beauty and that have brought such a bountiful harvest.
I see that in my kids so clearly. My little garden seedlings. And as much as it hurts sometimes, I must press on in prayer for them and trust that where God plants a seed, no matter what that seedling must go through or how long it may take, HOPEISM will bloom.
God's mercy for the wilted plant is new each morning so it can stand strong and warrior on...
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| This poor zucchini plant is about to bite the dust - a victim of Houston's heat & humidity! |
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| HOPEISM about to bloom! |
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| I was so blessed tonight while working in the garden to be able to capture these cardinals eating sunflower seeds! |
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| Garden life beginning! A cucumber-to-be. |
