I have written a love letter to parents of children with special needs because this life comes with many challenges. There are days filled with heartache and powerlessness, as we cannot always protect our children from isolation, disappointment, and intolerance. But we can serve as their anchor, and a support to each other.
I hope my words soothe your soul, and my love letter is something you’ll return to if ever you need a magical space to feel unity and connection.
LOVE LETTER
Dear Parents, we all originate as a seed. My daughter began like a luminous acorn with a strong will to grow into herself.
As time meanders and stretches, she will rise, spread her unique branches, create her beautiful leaves, tower into the distinct wonder she is destined to become in this world. Her limbs may brush the heavens. She may strum instruments with stars. Scale to the half-moon. Cradle in its nook. Hum her own hum. You see, my daughter’s imagination is different.
So are her needs. But her worth, oh, it weaves into my heart’s hollow-made-only-full through her.
It flies–breathtaking and boundless–as the sky’s diverse expanse. For now, though, as her acorn matures, I am here to make sure she feels grounded enough to one day do all of these things, and more.
I am her oak, her home, in an enchanted forest.
To look beyond our safe spot in this wooded landscape, the world can be frightening. It isn’t always leaning in her favor. True, it has the potential to be a tangled varied forest of exceptional beauty and synergy. At times, however, nature’s dark shades the view. Fear can strike trees down. Misted whispers of intolerance can wield the ax.
But parents of children with special needs, I still say to you, we are blessed. We have each other. A rooted, magical support system that branches out in every direction and interconnects, communicating a silent soul language. I look in your eyes. I see you. In one glance, I know you.
As I write from my study, I gaze through the window. The wind rustles the leaves, and they hum. We are like that. The powerful breeze that gives our child the voice of authenticity. To be who she is. Who he is. To own, and believe, live, and love the self.
We blow our children into the world, and invisibly we take each step with them. Our souls are theirs. And our hearts beat in a rhythm only the sky can know. The wise and mystical sky that watches over our children. The umbrella that shelters us.
I walk to my window and look to the sky. Then, I stare into my daughter’s eyes, into her world that connects to your child’s world and into ours.
Clouds are on the move. Sun speaks beneath them. Rain sparkles, alive.
Together, we step into nature’s imagination. In this dream world, parents and children laugh, splash, play. Worries wash away.
Life beyond the forest can be pure and blissful when we have each other.
This I know.
The world will sometimes love.
The world will sometimes hate.
But our sky is soul-spun.
And our seeds are magic.
They helped us grow eyes to see.
With the warmest wishes,
Angie
Kindness is the heart that flowers, spreading Love as seeds of power.
