I was talking to someone last week about the Olympics.

As I had just heard that we are under 100 days away from the winter games (thank you to my daily news watching habit)

My friend and I were talking about the times it takes the athletes to do this or that and how the quest is always there to be faster and faster. Even if it is only by 0.000000000001 second.

I remember saying that won’t there ultimately be a time when we reach the absolute fastest we can go? I mean that won’t there be a time that is the least amount it takes to run a 50 yard dash. After all, it will always take a few seconds to do as it is 50 yards so won’t that sort of limit the lowest we can go?

This quest for faster and quicker made me think about how this holds true in life too!

We have a need for faster phones……

Faster internet……

Faster computers…..

But with all the faster things we have, do we all really have any time to show for it? Or do we have the time but ear mark it for other things so it seems we don’t have that extra time?

I know I seem to be in a hurry some mornings no matter what I do.

It is like we are chasing the chance to slow down.

Now enter Elizabeth.

She is my daughter with special needs. She has global dyspraxia and sensory processing disorder (SPD). Both of these disorders make life hard work for her. She has had to have all skills broken down and taught step by step, again and again.

Every skill.

Every task.

Every last one.

And as hard and winding as the journey with Elizabeth has been it has been equally amazing and wonderful. And the gifts of Elizabeth as we like to call them, are so many, so varied and so wonderful. Our children with special needs bring so many gifts to our lives.

One of the gifts of Elizabeth is that she has the ability to step over the rush of life and the chasing of time.

Not that she can’t be made to hurry if need be or that she can’t rush is we really have to ( She is usually not a fan of these things)She really has one speed and her sister, Emily, was the one to point that out.

The gift of Elizabeth related to time is that she helps us all S-L-O-W down and enjoy the moment. We could be rushing around, literally passing ourselves in the hallway and she will be looking out our front window at the sunset and tell us how pretty it is and why don’t we come over to see it.

It makes us take a pause and enjoy the pretty thing God created.

I love that she is who she is and it helps us rejoice in the gift of Elizabeth when she shows this “Stop the world” moment.

Our special needs children are so unique and so special in their gifts, so I thought at time when we are all getting ready for the holiday season to start…like runners at the starting line….maybe hearing about Elizabeth’s gifts will make stopping the busy a bit more possible.

And also remind us to enjoy the gifts our special needs children bring to us each and every day.

I wish everyone a peaceful week. Please wear a mask and get vaccinated!

Michele Gianetti author of Elizabeth Believes in Herself

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