Spectrum of Normal

" Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms." - 1 Peter 4:10 In 2023 I discovered one of the gifts God designed and entrusted to me - autism. The unwrapping of this gift has taken time, but little by little I have begun to learn how to use it. There are many downsides to being neurodivergent (the inconvenience of needing detailed explanations, the lack of automaticity, the pressure to keep up - or at least show determined effort, the anxiety and frustration of falling short AGAIN, the self-awareness that while there can be growth, there will always be struggle, the knowledge that most people will not understand the struggle, even if they are sympathetic. And this is not a comprehensive list). With all this against me it is tempting to think I have nothing to celebrate about and very little    useful to contribute.  But I have been a child of God for 35 years and know differently . So......

  12 Giving thanks unto the Father... 13 Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: Cossians 1:12-13 In early March, 2026, I was visiting with family out of state. The church I attended that weekend was beginning a series on Daniel. The pastor introduced the sermon this way: "Every place/society you enter (e.g. job, school, city, friend group) is trying to "train you." Nobody hands you a speech and says,    'Here are the *official* rules, and here are the *real* rules.' You just have to learn them. You learn by observation what gets rewarded; you learn what makes people uncomfortable; and you learn what kind of person you need to be in order to belong in this space." That hit a little bit of a raw nerve with me because of its reality. My whole life, I have struggled to learn, or be aware of the nuances of prosocial standards. I NEED that "speech" about what the rules are.  I am often n...