As part of the Autism Positivity flash blog event, we bloggers are encouraged to list 1000 positive aspects about autism to combat the waves and waves of negativity through out the media and such… but instead of just 1000, I thought it would be better to aim higher. How about 1,000,000? 10,000,000? How about 140,000,000?
Because if the latest estimates are to be believed from the CDC, which puts autism near 1 in 50 school children, then out of 7,000,000,000 on the planet, we have a lot to be positive about.
Every single child is priceless. There is no limit to a chlid’s value and that value certainly does not diminish because of any disorder, disability or otherwise “defect” that we can possibly think they may have. A child is a child. And you can’t place a value on a child. And every single one of those children has a positive influence on this world.
With love, with care and with a warm smile from every new face they see, their life will continue to grow in a positive way.
It doesn’t matter if a child can’t speak or play in sports or is unable to learn the things we want them to learn… they still deserve the love and respect that any child would.
Even when we think of the positives with children, we think about what they teach us, open our eyes to, what they are able to discover and do for themselves and how they impact not just our own world but the entire world and it occurs to me that, these are things. Abstract, sure, but still things. With or without these things, the child is still a beautiful, unique and priceless child.
I don’t need to recognize that my child has made me a better parent to be positive. I don’t need to be aware of how much my child has and will continue to over come in his life to be positive. I really don’t need anything or for there to be anything happening.
All I need, all I will ever need are my children. So long as I have them, I have everything I need in the world to be positive about. What they do or don’t do, teach me or don’t teach me… these are instances in time. They are things in their own right to be positive about. But they’re not what I need to be positive.
When I close my eyes and I think about it, I recognize that my child isn’t 1 in 50. My child is 1 in 7,000,000,000.
And that, my friend, is something worth celebrating.
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