There’s a moment in my conversation with Stacy that’s really stuck with me.
She shares a story about a five-year-old autistic boy who would spend twenty minutes a day gazing out the classroom window at a simple tree. His teacher was puzzled. It just seemed like a tree.
But Stacy discovered something incredible. When she asked, “What are you looking at? What am I missing?” he replied:
“Pattern. Leaf. Pattern. Leaf. Light.”
He was meticulously observing the way the leaves moved against the sunlight—noticing a precise and beautiful sequence that everyone else missed.
What really got me was Stacy’s reply:
“I’m so jealous. I can’t see that.”
Think about it; just seeing something we’ve trained ourselves not to see? We call it focus when it looks like productivity. We call it distraction when it looks different. Maybe that’s the real pattern.
Maybe “normal” isn’t the ability to see clearly—but the ability to ignore almost everything.
Links:
“Through Our Lens” – A Collaborative Book : by Stacy Badon, Rebecca Engle, and Kevin Allen offering insights into the autistic experience.
Everything Autism - Official Website page of Stacy Badon : Stacy's official website with more of her work and perspectives.
