THE SPECIAL WAY
All Mackenzie wanted for Christmas was a ‘magic pebble’. She heard about it in an audiobook and as a lover of magic and encourager of her delightful imagination I enlisted my good friend, who also happens to be a silversmith, to put her creative talents to use. Jo made Mackenzie a ‘Wishing Stone’ complete with stars, a toadstool and a dial to be pointed in the direction of said wish. Mackenzie, overwhelmed with delight at receiving the only thing on her Christmas wish list before Christmas, held the stone in her hand and said,
“I wish
Within my heart
Within all of my body
That the rain would fall
And it would be become dark and cloudy
And we would not be in drought anymore.
Please magic stone
Make it rain really really hard”
Her wish was for rain.
I wonder what world our children and grandchildren will have to live in when we’re not here to protect them from the abuse we inflicted on our Earth. I wonder what they’ll think of us when we can no longer fool them into believing the rain will come and it’s going to be ok. It doesn’t feel like it’s going to be ok. I gaze outside the window of a closed up house at the yellow toxic hue that has become our air. It smothers the sky and I can barely see the trees over the back fence. This thick blanket of smoke is kissing the earth’s surface and it’s literally choking us. I haven’t seen a blue sky for many weeks and the incessant fires, dry and smoke-filled atmosphere and the reality of this deathly drought consumes my thoughts. I look at the ash and dust deposited on my car and I’m frightfully aware that this sediment has also been inhaled and now sticks to my lungs.
It’s putrid.
My throat is hurting.
My eyes are weeping.
My heart is retreating.
I feel helpless. I know many of us do. I sit in my air-conditioned home and car and go about my day as though life carries on as usual. But there’s an undercurrent in the depths of my cells humming a vibration so dense that it can’t be ignored.
This is not usual.
Our children, many in my circle born with incredible challenges, have a right to clean air, fresh flowing abundant water, vibrant green grass (where is all the green grass?) and the life we had growing up. But they are living in this furnace, this global crisis of a dying earth, our lands literally on fire. Their freedom, access to nature and education has been halted by Mother Nature’s inability to ignore the ignorance’s thrust upon her for too long. She’s screaming now, Pacha Mama. She’s making a scene. The fire is lit and she’s raging her fury across our lands to get our attention.
But our children are listening. They carry this innate knowing that our home is compromised and are wishing for change in their innocent play.
“I wish within my heart, within all of my body, that the rain would fall”
I believe that many of our children came here, in this way, in compromised bodies, with different brains, unusual abilities and new information with special purpose. They came here encoded with knowledge that we don’t have. They have profound skills, incredible talents, savant abilities and a wiring that doesn’t match what we know. There’s a reason many of our children carry diagnoses that identify an inability to mould into society’s current conditioning. This is not a mistake. They’re wired in a different way. They’re wired in a New Way. A special way.
Because the old ways aren’t working, evident by the devastation to our land, the lack of water and the growing desert regions that were once lush and thriving eco systems.
Our children need to be hexagons in this square shaped society. They need to not fit the mould. Because this conditioned world we live in is taking us down a path of death and destruction. Our children need to be different. They need to break the rules. They need to challenge us beyond comprehension. They need to surprise us and move us from our seats. They need us to practice solving the unsolvable on their compromised neurological systems because we have a huge problem to solve on Mother Earth.
I believe our children are a little extra special with great intent. They demand extra patience. They demand that we grow into the most resilient and strongest versions of ourselves possible so we can support their new ways. They require extra compassion. The need extra kindness. They rely on extra understanding and empathy from the heartiest of places. They encourage gratitude in the face of adversity. They want us to see beyond their limitations and celebrate their light. They will accept only LOVE. I believe children born into this world with neurodiversity are here to lead us to an alternate way so we can forge a path for change and help them undo the tragedies we’ve bestowed upon their home. There is catastrophic damage to be undone and Mother Earth demands the same values as our children so that we can unveil a pristine world that our children deserve. Mother Earth demands:
Patience
Resilience
Strength
Compassion
Kindness
Understanding
Empathy
And above all, love
So while our children wish upon magic stones for the skies to cool the earth’s raging fires, I invite you to listen to your children like they carry the key to the solutions we need to overcome the fury. Because they’re here to make a scene. They’re here to challenge and upheave everything we know. They hold wisdom beyond our comprehension and we have a responsibility to look beyond their challenges. We have a responsibility to sit down and listen so we can unlock the wisdom within these magical creatures and shine a light on them, and our beautiful planet.
Circa 2009: Mackenzie Sage, 10 days old. Undiagnosed. I saw a wisdom in her sightless eyes that took my breath away. I knew in this moment that not only had she been here before, but that she came to me with great purpose in this life.