I knew these things, but somehow ‘the advertising’ got in the way
but I’m awake now and I know, I’ve always known,

that being ‘needed’ is not being ‘loved’

and being ‘controlled’ is not being ‘cared for’

BUTTERFLIES by Donna Williams

if someone takes your disabilities and makes them your gilded cage
then you take charge of your disabilities like never before
for they are your fallibility, the keys to your cage

a key you allowed someone else to call theirs
because they taught you this was love and caring
and in the light of day you realise it had nothing to do with you

so you look in the mirror and say, wow, there’s a fool
and brush off the dust and say, ok, so the world is full of fools so I’m in good company

and you look at your life and say, wow, there’s an island
but islands can build bridges

and you look at your smile and say
wow, I’d forgotten I could wake up with this

and you look at your time and say
you ain’t Florence Nightingale, so follow that smile
because a heart shouldn’t be heavy
it should be light
because a heavy heart will never fly
and butterflies can.

Donna Wiliams

http://www.donnawilliams.net

http://www.aspinauts.com

Jame Jar, produced by Charlie Stuart for UK’s Channel 4 TV in association with Fresh Film UK and directed by Simon Everson, Jam Jar was filmed in Wales in 1995 about author, Donna Williams.

SYNOPSIS:

Bestselling author Donna Williams lives on a farm in rural Wales with her first husband, a man on the autistic spectrum.   Here they live according to a different culture and rules that are taken for granted in the world beyond their own.  Donna becomes a tour guide showing us the person beyond the labels on the ‘jam jar’.   Poetic and artistic, Jam Jar explores Donna’s meaning deafness, meaning blindness in the context of autism and the social, emotional and communication bridges she uses to navigate with the world. Read the rest of this entry »

The term autism is highly politicised with some claiming their child as THE face of autism or desperately clinging to sinking stereotypes disappearing until the waves of diversity within the label itself.  One of the face of that diversity is the aspect of personal space.  Read the rest of this entry »

I was never one to wear shoes as a kid and didn’t think much of socks either.  I felt they were suffocating my feet.  It was like being blindfolded or having your hands in gloves all the time.  So whether the ground was covered in frost or the Australian summer tarmac so hot the tar stuck to your feet, those shoes came off!  Read the rest of this entry »

Once upon a time I was in Toronto, a place with icy ponds and mother of pearl rainbows sparkled in frost.  I was taken to CBS radio station to meet with a journalist, Peter Gzowski.  He was a toasty man, a voice like an open fire, a manner like Read the rest of this entry »

  Now the topic might totally turn you off, but a percentage of so called ‘low functioning’ kids with autism engage in this obsessively, occasionally even into adulthood.  In fact Temple Grandin cites herself as having been one of those children Read the rest of this entry »

  Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is not Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder (OCPD) but its often confused with it.  Read the rest of this entry »

  In an autism fruit salad can be a range of things and two of us in The Aspinauts experience Tourette’s tics Read the rest of this entry »

At one of my UK lectures a warm, solid personality sat not far from the front.  She exuded a feeling of stability, peace, acceptance and on the break she came over to my book table and gave me a book of her own.  Her name was Phoebe Caldwell.  Read the rest of this entry »

    When an 18 year old Sky Walker, a severely autistic man, bashed his mother to death he was facing charges of murder even though he couldn’t understand the charges of what he’d done.  Read the rest of this entry »