A Letter to You (who wrote – “I Wish I Didn’t Have Aspergers”)

You are beautiful.

It doesn’t matter that we’ve never met.  It doesn’t matter that you do not know who I am.

You are beautiful.

You are beautiful exactly as you are, at this moment, no matter how sad, how angry, how confused or lonely you may feel, you are beautiful.  We live in a world and in a society, which fears that which it does not understand.  The majority of those people are different from you.  That does not make you wrong or bad or any other derogatory word that you may have heard directed at you, it simply makes you different.

You are beautiful.

There are others, others who are similar to you who also inhabit this world.  My daughter, Emma is one of them.  Emma is ten.  Emma does not know what google is or if she does, she cannot communicate that she does.  She, like you, is wired differently.  Emma is autistic.  She has many challenges.  There are things that are much, much harder for her to do, like reading and writing and speaking.  She has lots of sensory issues that cause her tremendous discomfort and even pain, but there are other things that are easy for her.  She is honest and full of love.  She is without guile, she does not bully or condemn, judge or gossip.  She is without inhibitions.  Emma loves music.  I think music speaks to her in a way that conversational language cannot.  When she dances to her favorite songs she becomes an extension to that music.  She incorporates it into her being and it brings her tremendous joy.  She is a free spirit and her beauty emanates from her without censorship.

She, like you, is beautiful.

Find your place in this crazy world.  Speak out and while many may not want to listen or may even try to silence you, do not let them.  Do not remain silent.  Add your voice to the chorus of others who are here with you, who are like you, who also have Aspergers.  Say what you feel.  Say what it is like to be you.  We need your voice, I need your voice.  My daughter cannot tell me these things, so I listen to others who are like her, but who can speak.  Each one of their voices is beautiful.  There are many, many people, like me who want to hear from you, who want to listen.

You are beautiful.

If people say things to you or about you that are cruel and hurtful, do not believe them.  Their words are not a reflection of you, they are a reflection of them.  There are many sad, angry, troubled people in this world who hurt others because of their rage and sadness.  No matter how much they may want you to believe that you had something to do with their unhappiness, you did not.

You are beautiful.

Someone typed into google – “I wish I didn’t have Aspergers.”  From that google search they found the blog Outrunning the Storm, a blog written by a mother of an  Aspergers child.  A number of bloggers got together and reached out to many of us, asking that we each write something, which will be posted on the newly created – AutismPositivity Day Flash Blog.  The above is my contribution.

For my latest piece in the Huffington Post – Running With Mermaids

To read Emma’s profile in The Thinking Person’s Guide to Autism, click ‘here.’