autism

Many people think trees grow so big from soil and water, but this is not true. Trees get their mass from the air. They gobble up airborne carbon dioxide and perform an act of chemical fission by using the energy from sunshine... Essentially, trees are made of air and sunshine.

The trees reach up above me toward the sky, stretching out their great limbs in an intricate pattern that reminds me of the pattern of light... the pattern shifting back and forth as I climb.

Children with autism are constantly testing and pursuing truth. They are a bundle of contradictions. They love order and routine, yet often have the most amazingly inventive and creative minds. They may appear to follow rules, but are also the most likely people to come up with a revolutionary new idea. They feel emotion intensly, but often seem to struggle to read facial expressions.

But in a home where grief is fresh and patience has long worn thin, making it through another day is often heroic in itself.

When I was very young I thought I was just like everyone else. I think it took me longer than most to realize I was different and even longer to realize that being different was what made me great

Why was it considered normal for a girl to live for fashion and makeup, but not car engines or bugs? And what about sports fanatics? My mom had a boyfriend who would flip out if he missed even a minute of a football game. Wouldn't that be what doctors considered autistic behavior?

Everything can be summed up into an equation.

Today, with tears in my eyes, I telephoned the mother of one of our children (aged thirteen) who had spoken for the first time since the age of three...

I like it that order exists somewhere even if it shatters near me.

I'm not a hero for living autistic. I'm a person just like you. Just living my life.

I find talking difficult as my brain goes much faster than I can say the words. So most of the time my sentences are all jumbled up. That's why I have a collection of phrases I've stored and mostly just use those instead.

If you want to annoy a poet, explain his poetry.

Dreaming is escaping. Daydreaming is a form of self protection. Dissociation is Survival

I hesitate in everything, often without knowing why. How often I've sought _ as my own version of the straight line, seeing it in my mind as the ideal straight line _ the longest distance between two points. I've never had a knack for the active life. I've always taken wrong steps that no one else takes; I've always had to make an effort to do what comes naturally to other people. I've always wanted to achieve what others have achieved almost without wanting it. Between me and life there were always sheets of frosted glass that I couldn't tell were there by sight or by touch; I didn't live that life or that dimension. I was the daydream of what I wanted to be, and my dreaming began in my will: my goals were always the first fiction of what I never was.

What brought you here isn't your fault. We human beings have to live each day to its fullest and do our best in whatever environment we find ourselves in. There's no need to feel any shame just because your "fullest" and "best" look different from those of others.

All people, whether Aspie or neuro-typical are predisposed by their society to make guesses, jump to conclusions and then seek to defend those conclusions, regardless of logic or changing circumstance. This is sloppy, illogical thinking which may not hinder your life too much, under normal circumstances. But if you want to be a great detective, then such thinking will absolutely ruin your chances.

It__ true, though, others won__ understand me. I know that. I__ still an alien in the American Christian subculture.Each evening I retreat from it, and I go straight to the Gospels.It's not out of duty that I read about Jesus; it's a respite.

I take criticism to heart. The words hit me literally and it hurts. It can take me a long time to recover from it.