"Community Autism"

Every Thursday my email inbox receives a weekly 'newsletter', actually it's more of a personal letter, from Graham Long who is the Pastor of The Wayside Chapel in Kings Cross. In this letter to The Wayside's "Inner Circle", as Graham puts it, are personal stories and updates on everything Wayside & Graham are up to and it is an email I receive regularly that I look forward to. Anyway in this weeks letter Graham said the following:

".... here I am typing on this beautiful laptop that was a gift of the Kings Cross Rotary; on the next table is a man absorbed with his phone; he's clearly not talking to anyone but he has headphones on and must be playing some kind of game. On the other side is a woman who is reading a document on her iPad. Near her is a couple having breakfast, each of them on the phone to someone; a good number of people walking past have earphones on, they look like they know where they are going although they are quite disengaged from their surroundings; at the fountain there are a couple of people taking photos of themselves; right next to one of these is a man whom I know by sight, engaged in an intense discussion with someone who appears to be not present; a woman walked past just now who I've never known to be psychotic but she's having a fight this morning, it's a full blown argument with someone who appears to be invisible (I once saw this lady's bare bone through an ulcer in her arm); poor sausage, I'm sad to see that she is not really with us today. Traffic is at a standstill because of roadworks in Macleay St and horns are blaring non stop. Philosophically, cars are more like waiting rooms than they are a means of transport these days. I can't see a single car with more than one person in it. If I didn't know better I'd think that I'm looking at a kind of community autism."

This paragraph stopped me in my tracks. I read it and then read it again. Graham's observations are oh so true for many of our communities. We all seem to disengage from our surroundings allot of the time. This is exactly what we are trying to help Felicity NOT to do. When we enter the playroom with Felicity we want to be 100% present. We try to create an environment of complete acceptance, energy, enthusiasm, love and want for anything Felicity gives us - wether a quick glance from the corner of her eye, a full blown Felicity style dance and song or even if it's an hour of, what seems like, Felicity is ignoring that we are right there!


Everyday things can catch up with us and put us into a bit of a 'detached routine' but if we took the time every morning and thought: “Be The Change That You Wish To See In The World” - (as said by Gandhi) just imagine the force of nature you could be! And who knows it might even rub off onto others around you... imagine that?!?

Thanks for the reminder Graham xx