Enjoy the journey and learnings in between

My son was born 3 months premature, I remember driving home petrified not know what was going to happen!  Through Grace he was born with minor issues, although he was in an incubator for 2 or so months.  He could literally fit into the palm of my hand, the simple tasks of breathing and eating was a challenge for him, you could see the effort he expended on each breath!

His challenges did not stop there, at about 4 years of age he was diagnosed as being globally delayed in all areas of development of at least 18 months.  He was in real danger of having a mental disability.  He is now 7 years, and going to a normal school and coping quite well, I could not be more happy with his progress.

It was a 3 year journey to get him  back on track, we got the right guidance from the right people, we had faith in them, we persevered and worked patiently with professionals and at home on the most remedial of tasks, like how to hold a pen, how to tell past, present and future, what a fruit was, what a vegetable was and what was the difference.

Though my son was disadvantaged on many fronts, he had some key strengths which none of my other kids displayed, that was of empathy and ability to smile and make light of every situation.  He did however have issues of confidence, once he got confident in accomplishing the smallest of tasks,with the right encouragement he was able to try bigger tasks.  We were extremely grateful that he had the gift of empathy and compassion, and he is a blessing in our lives.

From this simple story there are many important elements that we can apply in our lives to reach our destination and enjoy the journey and learnings in between.

Right Guidance comes from the Right People, following them requires a certain amount of initial Faith, with Patience and Perseverance and the Right Encouragement we build Confidence in the Guidance and Truths given, and with our inherit Strengths to overcome our weaknesses, Persistence of effort we are able to achieve almost any task given, and be Grateful for many lessons learnt in overcoming the Challenges.

My lessons learnt from this is one of deep Gratitude and Humility, and a sense of how we take simple things for granted.  I remember sitting in the LifeStart support group, with one father saying about his child with down syndrome "Unfortunately unless we can do something about the extra chromosone, there is really not much I can do other than to give my child all the love and support possible".  That just ripped my heart out in that meeting.

Be thankful for what you have, know that it is enough, and know that you can make it through any situation with the help of Friends, Family and Grace.

Peace,

Kirpal