Stop, there goes a banana. It’s funny what I think now in certain situations. I try to laugh about something that isn’t even funny, but coping is what I have to do. Owen and I were standing at the bus stop and our neighbor walked by. He was holding a bunch of bananas and stopped to talk to us. How is this even possible that this is a thing I have to watch out for or explain. Owen immediately started wrinkling his nose, diving into me. Luckily it was a bunch of bananas and not a single one. A single banana can cause meltdowns, a bunch of them generally gets stares. However, we have been working on this. I have them sitting at the house most of the time. It’s one of those things that I’ve pushed the line with because he likes the taste of the banana if it’s squished into a waffle or smoothie. Plus, it’s something that, like today, we are going to encounter out in the world. It’s like stoplights. It’s something that we have to work through so it doesn’t cause a meltdown. My strength waivers some days as we start driving down the road. He yells, “green”. We are nowhere near a light and the words echo through the car. I remind him to breathe, I remind myself to do the same thing. How can a stoplight possibly cause a meltdown that will last for hours. But they do. I’ve started changing his focus when we go through them. I make him count, I talk about his tablet, and I try to make him think about anything else in the world. And the biggest thing, I try not to cry. My emotions rock and roll through my body and I look for ways to bring relief to my soul. Most of the time I want to sit on the couch, not rocking the boat at all, but I know we have to keep moving forward, even though that can be one of the hardest things to do. I never know which way to turn, sometimes literally, sometimes figuratively. Why push the banana envelope when we could try to avoid it forever, I think, but then I know we can’t always turn right to avoid a stoplight either. Today and always know that you are a lot stronger than you think you are. Find your smile, share it with the world, and know you are important. Smiles to all and donut daze!
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