Blue Bendy Straw Motif

I have always liked the word Motif. It has a certain romance and grandeur to it. When I say it I can feel the red velvet seat beneath me as I watch a tragic Opera. Oddly enough a blue bendy straw seemed to be my motif of the day. Nice color of blue, but completely devoid of romance. In fact it was twisted into the oddest shape. Fortunately what it lacked in romance it made up for in unique composition. It was in many ways a plastic metaphor of my existence.

Have you ever had something that just kept reappearing in odd places. Something you are certain that you have put away or thrown away but like a sprite it taunts you, popping up impishly out of nowhere. Enter a blue bendy straw motif.

I was in the space of deep thoughts when it occurred that most of life's lessons are blue bendy straws. They keep popping up in their same old odd shape. No mistaking, it is the same lesson just laying on a different floor. There is a verse found in Philippians 4 :12-13

"I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me."

This is my blue bendy straw. I find its familiar shape everywhere in my families autism experience. Oddly enough it is sometimes easier to be content when there is little to hope for. I find that when things are going well I want them to be better and loose the perspective that makes living with contentment a reality. For now things are going quite well with Scarlet. She is so much more easy going now that we are back on the diet. She is gaining ground with her IBI experience. She has mastered her matching program, she is a little whiz at matching. She is coming out with more and more words. She is starting to do things like, clap her hands for the song "If you are happy and you know it clap your hands". She has been giggling lots and trying to make us laugh. She loves to do those little hand clapping games that are popular with little girls her age... with lots of help of course. She is gaining ground on her voice output device and loves to find it and to ask for "TV". Her little sister knows this and brings her the voice output device when she wants to watch t.v. Things are moving in the right direction, but there is still a LONG way to go.

There is a familiar shade of blue lingering just on the corner of my perceptions and as I look in its direction, it is unmistakably that oddly shaped lackluster companion of mine. In this place of new growth with Scarlet, I look upwards with a smile, because even the most ordinary things can be beautiful. I can celebrate with each appropriately executed hand clap, because the God who gives me strength is my help and he is present and he is presently placing blue bendy straws in the most unlikely of places.