Autism: Forgetting, remembering & finding the gifts

By Lian Brook-Tyler

I find myself thinking about being autistic less and less these days, and it’s easy to forget why I am able to do that.

I was reminded last week after an ill-considered supermarket trip that my frazzled nervous system required a few hours in bed recovering from. 

The experience made me appreciate yet again, how fortunate and privileged I am to have created a life that feels fulfilling and meaningful, and in which experiences of this kind are now a rarity.

I know from both qualitative and quantitative data that the way I live is not the case for most autistic people… for example, only 22% of autistic people are in paid work (I wonder what the percentage is for autistic people of colour), compared to 80% of non-disabled people*.

I saw this Autism Bingo card earlier, I ticked nine of the boxes, and it seems to me that context is all important…

I wonder which boxes are only there because this crazy modern world is an environment ill-suited to many humans, it’s just that autistic folk feel it more intensely.

I wonder how many of the boxes I can tick are not so much of a challenge for me simply because of the life I have, for example, though I could tick the box “Sensory issues”, I would describe them as “Sensory sensitivities”, these days they’re rarely an ‘issue’ because I am able to tend to avoid environments that make them seem like issues, in fact, they’re more often a gift, aiding me in the work I do.

And my life is how it is to a large extent because of the work I’m devoted to, personally and professionally… especially the work of self-illumination, rewilding and embodiment, the reclamation of British shamanism, and ultimately, being the gift I came here to be.

There’s no magic wand that can immediately resolve the challenges of autistic people, but there is a path forward (and it is actually rather a magical one).

I have woven together a range of resources for neurodivergent people under Resources- Neurodivergence.

There IS a way.

I am reminded of lines from Greg Kimura’s poem Cargo, which I have read to many people who needed to hear it (including myself)...

“But the way cannot be found without knowing the cargo,

and the cargo cannot be known without recognizing there is a way,

and it is simply this:

You have gifts.

The world needs your gifts.

You must deliver them.”

That is the way.

My love and blessings as you unfold your own myth.

♥️

*Source: “Outcomes for disabled people in the UK: 2020”.

 
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