The Donkey and His Driver

The Donkey and His Driver

 Aesop's Fables

 A donkey was being driven along a road leading down the mountain side, when he suddenly took it into his silly head to choose his own path. He could see his stall at the foot of the mountain, and to him the quickest way down seemed to be over the edge of the nearest cliff. Just as he was about to leap over, his master caught him by the tail and tried to pull him back, but the stubborn donkey would not yield and pulled with all his might. “Very well,” said his master, “go your way, you willful beast, and see where it leads you.” With that he let go, and the foolish donkey tumbled head over heels down the mountain side. 

They who will not listen to reason but stubbornly go their own way against the friendly advice of those who are wiser than they, are on the road to misfortune.

This is exactly what it feels like to be a parent, especially to my beautiful wonderful autistic son. I feel so blessed to have been entrusted to be his mom, don't get me wrong, but at the same time I feel exactly like the driver in this fable. 

I feel like talking about Kent and his autism is a little bit of a touchy subject. I want to be honoring of him and not make it all about me, but at the same time, it affects me and every member of my family. I want to make it normal to talk about, but I don't want to post anything that would make him feel bad or uncomfortable. 

In general I am an extremely private person and I don't like to share about any of the hard things. I feel like our culture has been that the hard things needed to stay at home, kept private. They are no one else's business, but at the same time, aren't we all here on earth to support each other? If we were meant to go it alone, I feel like life would have been designed differently. I want to learn from other people and help other people, but if I am too private, I can't do either of those things. If I don't share what I am going through, no one else will ever know. If they don't share what they are going through, I don't know if I can help or not. 

“The worst part of holding the memories is not the pain. It's the loneliness of it. Memories need to be shared.”

― Lois Lowry, The Giver

I am going to attempt to be honest on this blog while also honoring those that I love and respecting their privacy, but like it says in the quote above, "Memories need to be shared."