“You can go your own way” – Fleetwood Mac

Right after our highly successful trip to Oregon Caves this past weekend, we decided to drive another hour and a half that afternoon to Redwood National Park on the northern California coast. Apparently a scene from Walking With Dinosaurs had been filmed there, so Nigel had to act out the part with the sauropodlet (as Nigel calls baby sauropods) eating fern fronds.

At any rate, the boys and I loved roaming among the quiet, steadfast giants, and Nigel had fun climbing on the trunks of the fallen. Not wanting to violate any park rules, I checked for signs forbidding climbing. I didn’t see any, and Nigel was being careful, so we went on our way. At the end of the walk, we found some signs facing the other direction. I turned around and read one of them. “Stay on the trail,” it said.

At the end?! Why would they wait until the end of the trail to tell visitors that? I looked around and then it hit me. We had begun the trail loop on the wrong side. We went in through the out door. We finished where others started. But we started where others finished.

That’s how it is when autism is in your life, for the ASD kids trying to figure things out as well as for their parents. We do things differently. Our path is not the same as others’ paths. Sometimes we have to approach things differently to understand them. It may not be the expected way,

but somehow we get through it.

And sometimes it helps to just stop, take a breath, and look up.