Yesterday afternoon I received the following text from Emma’s therapist Joe – “Heading your way. Em had a rough day after museum trip. Wants to see you.”
First of all, I’d like to point out that the fact that Emma was able to communicate to Joe that she’d had a rough day is a massive leap forward. Secondly that she was able to then make it known that what she now wanted to do was see me was nothing short of amazing. It required her to identify her feelings. It required her to map out what might make her feel better. It required her to verbally put together the words in such a way that they would be understood. It required her to then make her request.
Yesterday morning on the subway headed to my studio I was reading the memoir by the autist, Rachel Cohen-Rottenberg, Blazing My Trail on my ipad. It’s a wonderful book, for those who don’t know of it, and had fully captured my attention when I felt a light tap on my arm. I looked to my left and there sat a woman, about my age or maybe a bit younger dressed in a suit, clasping a briefcase. “Excuse me,” she said. “I get claustrophobic in subways, especially when they stop and it helps if I have someone to talk to. Do you mind?”
“Oh,” I said, surprised by her directness, but also relieved that she seemed genuine (this is New York City after all) and was clearly frightened that our train had come to a halt in the middle of the tracks, something I hadn’t even noticed until she tapped my arm. I closed my ipad and turned toward her. “Sure,” I said. Not at all sure what to say next, but because I had just been reading Blazing My Trail in which Rachel Cohen-Rottenberg talks about wishing people would just ask how they might help, I asked, “What can I do?”
“Just talk,” she said, then to help me along she motioned to my ipad, “What were you reading?”
So I told her about the book I was reading and how wonderful it was. We then talked briefly about autism, something she knew almost nothing about. I asked her where she was headed. She told me about a business meeting she was on her way to at Rockefeller Center and how she was nervous about it. And then the train began to move again. She took a deep inward breath and exhaled, shutting her eyes momentarily before opening them again and smiling at me. “Thank you for being so kind and talking to me. You have no idea how much it helped.” At the next stop she got up. I wished her luck and she disappeared. As I sat watching her leave I thought about how great it was that she had figured out what she needed to do to help herself through what was clearly a stressful situation. And then I thought about Emma. I thought about how I hoped Emma would one day be able to express herself in a similar way. I thought about Rachel Cohen-Rottenberg’s memoir and how she has learned through a great deal of trial and error to get her needs met and I thought about how hard it is for so many of us to know what we want let alone muster up the courage to ask for help.
Not eight hours later I received Joe’s text – “Em had a rough day after museum trip. Wants to see you.”
Wow!
For more on Emma’s journey through a childhood of autism, go to: Emma’s Hope Book
Emma's Hope Book 
Very nice parallel with the subway lady. We all need a helping hand sometimes.
Richard! How exciting is our new blog design!!
Yes we do. I need your helping hand most of all! (Did that just sound totally inappropriate? It was meant in a very G-rated way.) Now I’m wondering if I should even hit the ‘submit’ button. Oh well. Here goes, what the hell!
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just wanted to let you know that i really enjoy reading your posts on here. They often arrive late in the evening, so its about the last thing i read before going to bed, and usually there’s something positive for me to ponder on over night. Thank you 🙂
Hi Carol! Thank you so much. What a lovely thing to say. I am wondering where you are that the posts arrive late at night. You must be 8-10 hours ahead or behind!
I absolutely loved this. Yay Emma for expressing herself and knowing what could help. I sometimes think those people we encounter, like the lady on the subway, are in some way angels. They help us to see parallels in our lives, bring things to the forefront in ways that would not be as powerful or tangible otherwise. they are gentle affirmations that things are going in the right direction.
This is exactly what my mother believes! I buddhist teacher I know says that every interaction (good or bad) is a moment in which we can choose to use as practice. I’m still working on that concept!
i think we’re 5 or 6 hrs ahead, depending on time of year, (we don’t do daylight savings time), and also partly because that’s when i usually get a chance to check feeds etc. . .
“Check feeds..” A different life style, a different time zone, the internet is great!
very different, but also not as different as you may think sometimes!
Zimbabwe is half a world away, but I see so many parallel’s in what you write to what I see in my eight year old son Zack.
I love how people float in and out of our lives like that and yet leave such a big impression! How cool!!! 🙂
In a funny way she helped me more than I helped her, but she’ll never know that!