Choice of Thanksgiving

Yo. Mick here, the cute one with the ball in my mouth!

Happy Thanksgiving.

I am thankful for Autism.

Here’s what I mean… Did you eat enough for 2 or more? I sure hope so because I got zipo – nadda – nadda darn bite.

I hounded and hounded (of course puns are intended – why waste them?) the cooks in the kitchen but they were stingy with the treats.

I was as snoopy as possible but we were at my Uncle’s and Aunt’s home and I’m not allowed into the kitchen (don’t look I’m seriously showing my puppy dog face – which I did most of yesterday to no avail!).

Turkey!

With all of the trimmings and not the first nibble!

If I’d been in my own home I’d have had the works except pumpkin pie; it gives me gas.

Mum was busy washing dishes, cooking, talking to my sister on the computer and hanging with the family. To say she was distracted is an understatement.

And she’s back! Mum took one look at my long face this morning and fixed me up a wonderful helping. I was drooling before she even set the dish down. I think it tasted even better than it must have yesterday!

I can’t be upset with being at my cousins’ home though, even if I am treated as less than the family member I am; I get to play with other canines!

My aunt brings Lucky, a Great Dane. Next-door is Foster, one of my Australian Shepard friends. All 3 of us with another carload of cousins and parents went to the park to play Soccer and chase balls.

Life just doesn’t get much better than that.

So even though the turkey and trimmings were slow to arrive, I have plenty to be thankful for. Life’s full of choices and being thankful is just a matter of choice, even without all the trimmings.

What does Thanksgiving have to do with Autism or vise versa?

Focus.

We can focus on the challenges of autism or we can focus on the gifts of autism.

We have the choice of what to be thankful for.

I could have focused on the lack of Thanksgiving treats in my dish but where’s the fun in that?

Choosing to focus on the joy of family gives me so much more happiness. Likewise, focusing on the gifts of autism brings all of us so much more of everything good.

Mum’s a much more patient person than she once was and I am a much happier canine because autism and my boy give me purpose. My boy loves me in a unique way that wouldn’t be the same without autism. I am unique and constantly growing in ways I never would have if autism were not a part of my life.

My boy, Red is growing as a person with autism.

People and canines alike are influenced with Red’s autism. And there are close to 1:100 boys with autism! That’s huge! Autism is ginormous!

Yes, there are challenges that we all perceive with autism that are very real and yes, life would be simpler (maybe) without autism, but would we be any happier? Would we be the same soul without autism in our lives?

Red was goalie in the soccer game with no final score on Thanksgiving Day. We were surrounded with family and love. Autism was there too but instead of taking away from the experience, autism contributed to it. Autism helped us all grow.

What we focus on is a choice.

We can focus on missing the family who were at other places or who have moved away from our table or we can enjoy the ones we’re with (There’s a song there somewhere). Autism can be a banquet with rich trimmings or it can be worse than no leftovers or nibbles.

The choices are ours.