Like the Weather

We've had a rainy couple of weeks around these parts. We live in the Sonoma County Wine Country in not-so-sunny California. This Spring has been a wet one, and I'm not complaining because we definitely need the rain.

But Spring here is tricky. It rains and rains and then all of a sudden there is a break in the clouds and the sun pokes it's head through long enough to remind you what it is like to have it's warmth on your face...what it feels like to go outside in shorts and no jacket. Suddenly you find your self opening your windows to let the fresh air inside, you start taking walks, working in the garden and firing up the BBQ and just as you begin to make plans for a bike ride or weekend picnic, it rains again with no end in sight.

We had a few beautiful, warm spring days and then it was so cold it was dumping hail. You can't get too comfortable or confident with the weather because one thing we do know about it, it's going to change. Again. It's as if mother nature is just messing with us.

And today as I watched the downpour from my kitchen window quickly change to sunshine, I thought about how similar Autism is to the weather. It's unpredictable but expected. Constantly changing but always the same. Bright with patches of darkness. Hopeful, yet sometimes very bleak. Stormy, wild and turbulent with heavy gusts.

Meteorologists refer to repeating weather as a weather pattern. It is common for the weather to become locked in a repeating pattern for a period of a few days. I live with a similar weather pattern in the form of a 3 year old with OCD tendencies. We go from several days of being locked on the channel changer to several days eating Doritos or throwing things out the front door. If you ever come by and there are carts and toys and other miscellaneous items strewn about on the front porch and walkway, that's what that is all about.

Being the Doodle's mom is an adventure, you might say I'm a "storm chaser". Chasing after his fits and tantrums and the aftermath of his hurricane like actions. Then when you add in the extra trails of trying to take a decent picture of him, well, then it's more like a Survivor Challenge. Like the weather, you have no choice or control. In some ways, you are completely helpless and at the mercy of the "storm". Some days are worse than others and all you can do is accept it for what it is.

So as I thought about all of the things I could be doing if it wasn't raining and as I wished for the rain to stop I remembered one of my favorite quotes, "Without rain, there would be no rainbows".