The Way Home

~ The Way Home ~

They say home is where the heart is. But what if you’re so lost you that you can’t find your way home? And you’re heart…is just broken.

In 2015 I moved kicking and screaming from our home of eighteen years, the place where our kids were raised – the place where we all grew up.  We loaded a u-haul and moved from Pennsylvania to Florida for the promise of a job, and the excitement of everything new. The beaches are beautiful there and the people are friendly (most of them) and for the first time ever, extended family was nearby. It was perfect. On paper.

Someone told me to go to hell…so I moved to Florida! Ba-da-boom!!

Like trying to shove a triangle peg into a square hole, life there just didn’t work; it’s hard to pinpoint what the issue was exactly because it’s not concrete, and it was much bigger than any one thing. It felt like with every step and effort made, I was bogged down by an anchor holding me back.  It doesn’t really make sense because I lived where people go to vacation! But the fact was, in the midst of that serenity, I was miserable, and felt like I was suffocating…and not just from that stifling humidity!

This past August, after the plan to bust out of paradise came to fruition, I got to move. Closer to who I am, who I have the potential to become, and to settle in and recover. I had lost my way living in a place that felt like a foreign land, and now breathing is easier, and all things feel possible again.

If you’re reading this you probably know ‘Josh has Autism’. The part about parenting a child/adult on the spectrum is that it’s always about them. I was barely keeping my head above water, but his needs didn’t go away just because I was struggling. His autism didn’t care that I was gasping for air.

My advice? Move to a place where YOU can breathe. Literally and figuratively.

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Listen to the Podcast: Josh Has Autism #080: Here At Last | http://sonyaking.com/josh-has-autism-080-here-at-last