Greetings! Hope the weather is fine where you are! Over here, it’s like this:
At his day program, my son recently completed an activity answering questions about his job preferences. While he seemed to be really engaged, the staff noticed that the answers my son marked on the worksheet were often not the same as his verbal responses. When he was done, it became clear that, regardless of his true thoughts, my son had been intent on creating a patterned design in the bubbled answers down the page. :)
Maybe he’s newly inspired toward creativity by his dad, who is currently working on a public-art-sized mosaic in our living room (you can follow Chuck’s work on Instagram @Lavoieart).
By contrast, my art feels progressively smaller as I tinker around with flash and micro-fiction styles. I’m thinking a lot about the kind of writing I want to do.
A dozen years ago, I launched my first blog during Autism Awareness month. My son was in sixth grade and there were still a lot of unknowns about his future. That kid will be turning 25 this summer. I’ve been writing publicly about him for more than half his life. Feels like there might be a change coming…
On this day three years ago (in my first month on Substack), I wrote that we were in an exploratory phase: my husband and I on the cusp of our 50’s and our son embarking on a new “adult services” adventure.
Our mission continues, so in honor of a lil’ thing called my birthday and my three years on Substack, I’m sharing it with you again here (with some new audio). I hope you’ll read (or listen!).
Thanks for being here. May you find perfectly sized creative outlets for yourselves!
That’s the view from here - more soon!
Happy birthday, Robin! And happy Substackversary as well. I kind of agree with your son… it’s so tempted to make a design on those bubble answer sheets!
Three years AND your birthday!!!! Congratulations 🎊🎈