Being Complacent

Being Complacent vs Being Inspired

Several weeks ago in church our Pastor urged us not to be complacent in life- his words were insightful and stayed with me far beyond the hour attention it required. I started recognizing areas that I had become routine with my spiritually as well as a mom, wife, daughter and friend. Although I did not make huge changes I tried to be aware of how complacency could be a downfall of mine if I let it.

You see when you have a child with special needs especially a child with Autism your routines are what save you. You go thru very predictable steps each day so that they know what to expect and to help you manage whatever protocols you are in the midst of.  Routines have saved us from terrible tantrums over the years and kept me on schedule with supplements and medicines. But complacently is born from routines.

When we started this journey, I was an addict to new found knowledge, I wanted to learn it all and implement everything. With each gain we made, I wanted to add more knowledge and more to our protocols for Lindsey. Somewhere along the way learning, implementing and studying became replaced with documenting and celebrating. We were thrilled to have had the initial huge gains and were quite happy to see the slower abilities come into focus. The pace slowed but our satisfaction and pride in new found abilities made me very complacent in pursuing more.

This weekend I had the opportunity to go to a TACA conference. It was very exciting to attend, many of the doctors presenting are doctors I had read about and followed, the information washed over me as a wave of enthusiasm. I felt energized and encouraged. Some of the new research is beyond fantastic, there are new correlations and ideas, things that can change the course of many of our kids lives.

All of our kids’ journeys are different and as I have said before- what works for one child may or may not for another. We are all at different points in recovery and some steps may feel huge but the reward could very well be worth it.  

My inspiration for writing today is simply to encourage you all to try to step away from the complacency that comes too easily to us and find some new challenges, find something else to try to investigate and to be excited by. Our kids recovery and every time they learn something new is the most amazing reward- don’t cheat yourselves or them out of finding new levels of success together.

I realized this weekend that I needed this conference to inspire me to do more, I had rested on a protocol that has been working rather than adding to it. Lindsey has made wonderful gains and I hope to relay in the near future even more exciting accomplishments.