In Ohio, we are blessed with 4 seasons! All 4 seasons are experienced in their full glory

Fall is by far my favorite season, followed by Spring, then Summer and then lastly Winter. I love the colors of the Fall. The smell of the leaves and pumpkin spice everything and it is sweater weather!

When you live in Ohio, the leaves coat the ground pretty much everywhere. When they are nice and dry, they make a beautiful crunching sound as you walk around. When we walk on the bike trail it is just gorgeous!

I used to run a lot and there is one memory I have of running on one of these sunny Fall days and I was looking at the ground as I rounded a bend. I had some nice music on (I still remember the song that was on my headphones) and I notice this pile of really pretty leaves, I ran over them and felt the crunch of them. Elizabeth was about 5 years old at the time and I know this because my mom and dad were over to spend some time with my kids and I got to go for a run!

So back then when she was 5 years old, she was still struggling with talking, still had a lot of sensory issues and we were in some form of therapy about 3-4 times a week.

My walk through the leaves this year, for some reason, brought me back to those leaves from many years ago. The difference is that now Elizabeth is 26 years old!

She talks up a blue streak and has achieved so much in her life. She is still a work in progress, but she is really trying to do so much independently.

The younger me, crunching those leaves, sure would have liked the chance to peek into the future to see that Elizabeth would talk well and those sensory issues would/could be kept in check. and her days are filled with life not therapies.

The younger me, would like to know that I would have the energy and drive to get Elizabeth to this point.

The younger me, would have liked to know that her siblings would still always have her back, help her when needed but love her always.

I think that is something we, as parents and caregivers, would love the chance to do every so often…just take that little peek into the future. Just a little one to help us know that what we are doing now are the right things.

I know that we can’t do that but the one thing you can do is to sometimes is to take a few moments to look back to see how far you have really come.

Maybe allow yourself the gift of this to let yourself know that you are making that difference for your child. That all the things you do help.

I know that I don’t do that backwards glance often but the crunchy leaves were my prompt this time.

So maybe you can have yours too!

I wish everyone a peaceful week.

Michele Gianetti author of Elizabeth Believes in Herself