In the beginning, we all felt a little rebellious going against the hive mind.  Television doctors told us to stay home.  Politicians told us to stay home.  Neighbors told us to stay home.  We did that.  Until we didn’t.  Now, and for several months, we’ve gone into stores, into Church, and into restaurants because those places, too, believe that life must go on.  Sure, online shopping, curbside pick-up and virtual Mass on Sundays could save us some time and energy, but humans need other humans.  My children need their friends.  I need my friends, too!  It isn’t the old normal, but tiptoeing back into places we knew were healthy places and hanging out again with people we love was exhilarating. 

We’re, of course, cautious when we need to be, and we’re honest at all times about how things are going in case we encounter someone who is fearful of catching an illness we don’t have.  None of us like the extra talk of mandates and or losing more freedom when those conversations start.  Those are tough moments all around.  Nevertheless, we understand that not everyone thinks like us.  Some people prefer restrictions and lockdowns, and they blindly trust television doctors who push experimental vaccines.  We do not.  Several restrictions are still part of some of day-to-day activities and do hamper some of the things we want or need to do.  But that hasn’t stopped us from living completely.  If anything, it’s made our family more creative in how we get things done.  The kids have morphed when they’ve needed to, and we’ve been flexible in how we parent also.  Both of us, the kids and myself, have gotten compliments when we do go out to the stores, restaurants and to Church.  People tell my children how well behaved and happy they look.  They tell me what a good job I’m doing despite all the stressors that exist.  My favorite moments are when someone, many times a complete stranger, tells my kids what a great mom they have.  They smile shyly, and I beam.  I tell them thank you and that I appreciate them noticing how hard I work for my kids and their health.  Nodding toward me, they tell me to keep at it.  I promise them that I will.

I know that what works one day certainly may not work the next, but that’s true no matter what’s going on in the world.  The world can be nutty, these days more so than ever before.  But not all of it is on the brink of despair.  Even though COVID19 changed a lot of things, and potentially still will in the future, I can’t let that get to me.  I can’t let that grip my kids’ lives right now either.  Like always, I will look for people who are positive and who can help us.  I will look for places that are welcoming and that treat their customers – masked or unmasked, vaccinated or unvaccinated – with respect.  I will make sure my children, all five of my teenagers, know to look for that as well.

Cathy Jameson is a Contributing Editor for Age of Autism.

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Here's a Mother's Day Hat Trick of Skyhorse Publishing books from Helena Hjalmarsson.

Already Whole: Discovering the Sacred Within

Many of us have made our lives so noisy, overwhelming, sensory craving and data driven that we have somehow missed the most fundamental part about ourselves and our lives. Learning how to work with every process, every situation, every relationship intuitively; learning to love what is, to let go, to have faith and find stillness; to foster one’s intuition and become creative in our own lives is something we can all achieve. To illustrate these concepts, Hajlmarsson calls on her decades of experience and work as a psychotherapist. But most significantly, her life as an autism parent, accounted for in her previous books, Finding Lina 2013 and Beyond Autism 2019, which has taught her where to find that elusive freedom and harmony: inside herself. Hjalmarsson believes that the solution to life's chaos, this freedom and harmony—this love—is accessible to all.

Finding Lina: A Mother's Journey from Autism to Hope

Lina was a precocious toddler—charming, chatty, joyful. At the age of three, in the aftermath of her second MMR vaccine, first came a seizure, and then, to her parents’ horror, the loss of Lina’s ability to play, use language, and control her impulses. Over the next few years they continued to lose Lina. She communicated her acute discomfort by biting, screaming, hitting, laughing maniacally, and throwing violent tantrums. As a single mother, with the help of her ex-husband, Helena Hjalmarsson tirelessly pursued every possible avenue to find a diagnosis, and more importantly a treatment, for her daughter, and the search continues to this day.

Beyond Autism: My Life with Lina

A Passionate Memoir about Life with a Teenage Daughter with Severe Autism, Following the Progress of Acclaimed Book, Finding Lina. Like her passionate first book, Finding Lina, about her daughter with severe autism, Helena Hjalmarsson brings an intensity of purpose and love to her second memoir about Lina, Beyond Autism. Lina’s world is one of excruciating challenges. Helena’s world is the same, but with her own insights, indominable spirit, and amazing clarity she sheds light and hope for other parents, siblings and caretakers of children with autism, as well as the children with autism themselves.