April is Autism Awareness Month, so I thought I’d kick things off a few days early by sharing some insights that I’ve learned from beautiful daughter with autism, Zoe.
When people think about autism, they don’t normally think about focusl Children with autism often run around and must be watched 24/7, flitting from activity to activity, without an apparent direction in mind.
What people don’t know, is that people with autism can demonstrate high levels of focus. When I think about Zoe, I think about the kid who can spend hours in a swing, or will dig for a good half an hour in the yard to get just the right set of rocks for her collection, the girl who could say parts of the alphabet backwards at 2, or put together puzzles in no time flat.
I think about myself and the many, many tasks I cannot do because I lack this type of discipline. Of course, for Zoe, much of her focus is dedicated to projects and ideas she likes, but I take inspiration from the fact that she sticks with them for a very long time. This is often thought of as a negative in our oh-so conformist society, but here is a partial list of things I like to do that I cannot seem to devote the kind of focus necessary:
- writing fiction and non-fiction
- blogging
- photography
- education
- creative design
I love doing all this stuff, but somehow I don’t have that “must focus or die” kind of contemplation on it – and I wish I did! If I did, I know that book I started 10 years ago would be done, the devotional would be nearly complete in rough draft form, the community design for this site would be done, my food photos would rock, and my BA would firmly tacked to my wall, possibly alongside my MFA 🙂
While we all fight and struggle against the disturbances autism can cause, let’s also focus (ahem) on the FOCUS that autism engenders in a person who is passionate about something. It’s my hope that not only can I help Zoe achieve focus that will be leveraged into a career, vocation, or mission some day, but I can do the same for myself.
A brain just BUILT for studying...
Note to self: How on earth did I NOT do an F-Word Series article on Focus??? Major faux pas…I sense a return of the series in days to come…
