Stand in the light of your own truth

I was bullied as a child. Not surprisingly, for I was very different: oddly dressed and much smaller than the other children, I never fit in with the "pretty girls" or the jocks. Even at a very young age, I knew I wasn't like the rest; however, nor did I care. Being raised in the pop psychology era of the 1970's, I took the phrase "love yourself first" a little too close to the heart. My mantra became, "I stand in the light of my own truth." so much so, that when I became a mother, my children quickly became tired of me saying it to them. the best explanation of this ideology was revealed to me when a friend gave me Robert Fulghum's book "All I ever really needed to know, I learned in kindergarten." In his compilation, he writes a story of when he was left in charge of a group of children. he decides to play a game of Giants, wizards and dwarfs. the children had to decide immediately, which group they fit into; which they were: a giant, a wizard or a dwarf. As they divided, one young girl asked "Where do the Mermaids stand?" As Fulgham describes it, "she did not relate to being a giant, wizard, or dwarf; she knew her category: Mermaid, and she was not about to leave the game and stand where a loser would stand....without giving up dignity or identity." she stood in the light of her own truth. that story spoke to me because I was that mermaid. No, I wasn't the pretty one, or the graceful one or the the atheletic one. but I was me, and I was happy with that. this philosophy saw me through many of the times of raising our son Connor.Few things can isolate you as well as having a child with a disability.
you raise them under a microscope with people judging you and your every move. There are prescribed therapies, care plans and rules to follow. WE followed very few. He was our son and we were proud of him. yes, the world would look at him very differently, but hadn't the world been looking at me differently  my whole life? I am proud to say that although he rolls his eyes whenever I say it; he too stands i the light of his own truth. he has never questioned whether he could do something or not, just how to make it possible!
as we moved him into his university residence room, 5 hours away from home, he shooed us away so that he could go out with the other first year students, I knew that I had just launched another mermaid.