Special Needs and Rolling With the Punches

If you have not spent much time with someone that has special needs you may not fully grasp the true sweetness that comes from this community.  Energy and compassion are channeled from a different part of my soul when I spend time hanging out and investing in these friends of mine.  It is not always a smooth road to be reveled with them but it is always good. Whether it is an interesting quirk, a lack of spoken communication, or uncomfortable situation may leave me speechless or unsure of how to respond, I truly believe it is just something that God blesses because this bonding and friendship is precious to him.  Sometimes I am at a loss, but God fills that gap.  While I am not worried about myself in these unpredictable situations, my fear at times is regarding others who may not have the same understanding and patience when it comes to my friends.  What I have come to realize, is that while my concern is valid, God is fully capable of filling that gap as well.

In my time working with friends with special needs I have stored up some incredibly fond and often hilarious memories.  I want to share a story that always makes me smile.  One night my Younglife Capernaum team had taken a large group of our non typical high school friends to the bowling ally for group hangout.  One friend, who I will just reference as her preferred, self given Native American name of “Blue River”,  was always keeping us on our toes.  She has zero full sensor and is very impulsive with food.  Well, as we were getting situated in our lane and setting up everyone’s name in computer system, we took our eyes off of her.  As I turned the corner to go look for her outside of our smaller mini bowling room, I noticed that she has gone to the pool table and bar area of the bowling alley.  Before I could make my way over to her,  she had already abruptly walked up to a table of two men enjoying a few beers while watching a football game.  She had not only begun to ask her standard set of questions (What’s your name? My name is Blue River. Where is your home town? What’s your favorite color? Do you have a dog? My dog’s name is Winston! Can I have a bite?),  but she had already grabbed a slice of pizza and had it chomped between her teeth before they could even blink.  It was in that moment that my fear set in.  “What are they possibly thinking right now?  How is this going to go down? What do I say?” I walked over and was ready to blurt out my fastest apology to the unprepared gentlemen when I realized they were not bothered and were in fact chatting with her about Winston.  They never acted like what had just happened was an inconvenience their night…they just went with it.  I was so relieved.  We talked about how it was not polite to grab other people’s food and that we had our own pizza on the way.  She apologized and they smiled when she left.

It just feels good knowing that so many people accept and attempt to appropriately respond to my friends. Most people have an awareness of special needs, but it is the people who try to jump into their world and try to understand their personality and soul that I just love.

There is a verse in the bible that says “Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of Mine, you did for Me”.  I feel like it is frequently applied to the category of special needs.  I love that the verse is a personal charge and is encouragement to be inclusive and loving.  While I don’t disagree that this is applicable and blessed by the Lord, I tend to not like the wording when it comes to these friends of mine.  I do not think they are the least of these. They may be different than me, but these friends of mine have truly changed and continue to change my life and perspective.  They make me strive to view life differently.  They are an absolute blessing to me.  To me, they are the greatest of these.

While not about physical therapy, this story prefaces a future blog post about my struggle in choosing which area of physical therapy to work in.  Pediatric developmental rehab vs outpatient?  Can I choose the wrong one and not be following my calling?  Stay tuned!