Mafe Maria: Personal stories by autism parent mentor, Maria Stultz

On the way to the Zingaron Place

Joaquin’s pretend traffic lights…

This image represents Joaquin’s oldest most recurring activity. I’ve joined this game many times, and I’ve been deeply challenged by it often. This morning, as I contemplated the hallway to the kitchen full of lights (not green ones), and I experienced the discomfort this explosion of objects causes in my experience, I realized one thing…

Joaquin's Lights

The choppiness of how my flow is interrupted physically and emotionally by these lights is very similar to the choppiness I realized I live with back in January (while I was experiencing Heaven on Earth, seeing my life with new eyes and flowing in perfect freedom). So today I’m looking at these lights (once again) as a representation of my limitations and all the thoughts, beliefs, and rules that get on the way of my experience of Heaven.

This week I’m very aware of three challenges I’m experiencing in my interactions with Joaquin. I’ve decided to explore and inquire non-judgmentally on them, and have found really useful perspectives to turn the challenges around. These lego lights relate to all three of my challenges (how interesting!)… Yesterday, I was able to find new avenues to deal with the “insanity challenge” and the “repetition challenge”. This morning I’m seeing a great new avenue to deal with the “interruption challenge”.

So after considering these thoughts, suddenly Joaquin tells me “I want mama to go to the Zingaron place with me” (the Zingaron Place is something he mentions often and I’ve symbolized as the dimension where he goes when he isms, the happy free place where he lives, the high vibration that I believe he is; I love my conversations with him about this “place”). He asks me why I can’t go with him, and I tell him that it is because sometimes I think it’s too difficult to get there. So he starts this pretend situation with me where we’re driving to it (in the past we’ve made a map, and when we did, it included a million different streets and a bunch of traffic lights on the way). This morning, he drives through three streets and we hit no traffic lights. “We’re at the Zingaron Place!!!”, Joaquin cheers. I cheer YAY with him and realize how easy it was to get there.

Once more I choose to believe that my little teacher is showing me something very important, and the perspectives I’ve created in dealing with my challenges this week will get me to a lovely place, and he knows it, and this is his way to validate it. I choose to see these lights as a reminder of my interrupted flow, and the perspectives I’m creating are turning those red lights to green. Zingaron Place, here I come!!!

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