Turning down the Heat of Special Needs Parenting
“Still the thermometer rose. The walls of the ship were too hot to touch. It was obvious that a crisis was approaching. In the next few hours it must kill them or get less.
It got less.”
From Out of the Silent Planet by C. S. Lewis
The passage from C. S. Lewis’ Out of the Silent Planet resonates with me as a special needs mom. Although the main character Ransom’s voyage through space was way outside the boundaries of my experience, I repeatedly live through the same kind of stress. Things happen. Then more things. And more things. I’m putting out fires left and right until I stop caring whether I burn up or not. Like Ransom and the others, I am flying near the sun as a special needs parent in a desperate attempt to journey successfully through this life.
As special needs parents, this is our story much of the time. There are too many things to deal with, too many problems to field, too many medical appointments, too much medicine to track, too much angst to soothe, too much sorrow to mop up with our already soggy souls. It’s easy to become overwhelmed, frustrated, and hopeless.
How do I, to mix my metaphors, keep my wings from melting in the sun? How do you emerge from the trials and still have something left to give? Here are some things that help me.
I know this world is not my home. The eighty-three years I plan to spend here in this life (don’t laugh—I’m a planner) are just a speck of dust compared to the eternity of the next world. With that perspective, the trials of this world look more trivial and less all-encompassing. Romans 8:18 says, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us.” Good things are yet to come.
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