My higher guidance

This painting represents my connection with my higher guidance. The higher guidance is my inner knowing. Knowing that I am great. I am great even though I am not perfect. I am great even when I don't know how to reach my goals yet.

My Garden

 

I am loving my time in the garden. 

Happy To Receive Award

I am happy to have had the pleasure to meet the mayor of Guelph. I feel really privileged to live in a great city. I am a happy receiver of an award of excellence. The link to the receiving of the award is below.
http://guelph.ca/2014/06/mayor-farbridge-honours-guelphs-difference-makers/

This is a link that mentions all of the others who received the award.
http://guelph.ca/2014/06/mayor-farbridge-honours-guelphs-difference-makers/

The Result of Launch Day

Recently we launched the new film HOLDING IN THE STORM: MY LIFE WITH AUTISM which was inspired by our Bridges-Over-Barriers group of communicators who have to communicate in other ways because we cannot speak reliably with our voices. My 2002 poem "What it's like to be me" forms a theme through this film. We thought that the main purpose and outcomes of film would be in helping non-autistics to get a better idea of what it's like to live with severe Autism. One unexpected result of the movie is that it made me think more about what it's like NOT to have Autism and to be "neurotypical". I am now a bit more interested in fiction and drama than I was before. This is a poem I composed last week about this different point of view.

I wonder about you

AB 9 Apr 2014

I never used to wonder

what it was like to be you.

I always knew I was different;

I always wanted you to learn

what I was like inside.

The part about you having
things I might be curious about
is a new experience for me.

I think my conversations
have been focused
on me as the subject.
I am learning to wonder
 what is going on inside you.
It is a new thing
for me to wonder
about you
who I do not really know.

You are a person in the blur
of the greater world
and if I did not know you,
you had not existed for me.
If I cannot see past my circle
I could not connect
and you were not distinct
or separate from the world.

I now wonder

what makes people tick,

and that the universe is made up

of you and you and you
and a million others like you.
I have so many people
to meet and learn about.
The world is
a large place indeed.

New Earth Alert alert

This one talks about our tree friends. Click here.

Thank you for coming

Thank you for coming to the film opening.  You are all really true friends. For more information about the blog about the film visit www.holdinginthestorm.blogspot.com. The day was great.

I am the man who composed the theme poem for this movie, “What it’s like to be me”. I like and admire the movie very much, though I usually tend to prefer documentary films and non-fiction.

I hope that our Bridges-Over-Barriers group will discuss the film some more but here are some thoughts. I love the beauty of the sights and sounds in the film and the contrasts between the peaceful park setting and the busy and noisy lecture theatre.

I know that the film was intended to help neurotypical people understand what it’s like to live with Autism as an adult. But other viewers might like to know that the film also helped with another line of the poem, “I wonder what it’s like to be you?”

Some people have wondered if we autistics would feel insulted and hurt by the attitudes of the “neurotypicals” to us. In fact, I really learned about other people from the film. I saw the “Dave” guy as very enthusiastic and think he would be a great friend. He was very excited about his girl. He was expected to be nervous. Perhaps at first he was insensitive to Matthew but when the girl said she knew Matty he was different. I think many of my friends are like him.

The students were good just like students at the university. They are still young and not sure how to make good decisions on what to say. They will learn hopefully. I would not say those words--that someone is a schizo. I think we need to remember that we are all different as well. I think that I will try to laugh like the students to practice for my university years. I think I will be safer learning from here. I will always be a student. I never stop learning.

I think it was a great day and glad I could talk to people. I think that made it real for them. I see they were curious as to what I was typing with Beth’s support. It was the highlight for me to see people understand the meaning of the film and be sincere not just nice. Sometimes people just say nice things and don’t understand. I see this in their eyes. They don’t seem to really feel comfortable talking to me, but that film day they seemed to know what to say.

Candles from my garden

The plants that we used to make the candles are from my garden.The candles were scented from my roses. The pressed flowers were also from my garden. My garden gives me joy. Happy thoughts come from my garden. The friends that get them (the gifts) are there (in the garden). They are there in spirit.