Special Needs, Tae Kwon Do, and A Book!

Some weeks, it’s hard to know what thankful is. It hides among the leaves and today’s between winter and not winter and too-cold mornings and too-hot afternoons.

The too-cold mornings and the too-hot afternoons are annoying, but, between them, there is comfort and peace and the perfect temperature and the perfect blend between errands run, playing, doing, not doing, dining, living, and being.

In many ways, that sums up my thankful for this week but of course I need to elaborate, especially given that I’ve been missing from it lately. Not in my heart or mind, but here, for you to witness.

And the power of witnessing thankful is almost as good as owning it, so here goes.

Recently, I enrolled my son Tucker in a Tao Kwon Do class, very, very unsure about his abilities to keep up (and still feel reluctant). When enrolling, I talked to his teachers about his delays and decided to try it. Again, I was reluctant, especially given that some of these kids have been doing this for the past 18 months and are younger than Tucker is.

But then this happened, where I realized that although he’s definitely developmentally delayed in comparison to his peers, he’s paying attention, and knows the names of kicks that I don’t know, as honed into the lessons as I am.

His teacher, in this video takes a break to redirect another student and yet Tucker stays focused. (EEEP!!)

That video, with its shitty sound, makes me unbelievably happy. I mean, Tucker’s getting it. The fact that he told me today that he is broken because he can’t say “L” is for another day. Because he gets Tae Kwon Do. And he likes it. He’s already begun learning the Korean alphabet for his white belt test.

(totally already 10, right? but wait! there’s more!)

This week, I found out that I was accepted to a new anthology about Mothering Through the Darkness, and share thoughts about my own experience – one that cannot be classified as diagnosed PPD or anxiety, but one that I look back on and realize wasn’t necessarily what typical new mothers experience.

My essay is entitled “His Baby Watermelon Head,” and is one that I think some of you may relate to. The book is scheduled to release this fall. I think it’s going to be amazing and am so very honored to have been accepted for it from more than 200 essays submitted.

The cover is gorgeous, as you can see:

Our little family went looking at houses today. That’s not really something to be thankful for except for that it is, considering the circumstances of us buying the home we live in today. When we purchased our home now, we were in a panic of sorts, my husband’s step daughter newly living with us, and newly in trouble and the suburbs beckoned.

Today, though, we’re in a new place, not literally, but thinking of one, maybe. And either way, it’s fun to look. To see what’s out there and to bear witness to how other people live, if only imagined based on their backyards.

I’m thankful for other people’s backyards helping me to know what I’d like my own to look like, and I’m thankful for martial arts helping my little boy realize that he’s a Ninja, in whatever way he can be, and that in whatever way he can be is more than enough.

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This has been a Ten Things of Thankful Post created by the amazing Lizzi.

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