your land, my land

Your processes and procedures Your solutions   Exposed Scrutinised Observed Tested   In your interrogations Your harsh light I wilt My soft places and shadows Exposed Vulnerable   I want to withdraw To hide   In shadows I can speak My voice soars Movement flows   Wild flowers grow In my soft places Humming  ……

Performance tools for austerity, restructure and resilience

I don’t exist in your reframing or in your mindset or achievements,   in your motivational drivers or your ideas of resilience,   in your affiliations and security,   in your slick presentations and easy people pleasing categories.   I don’t exist in your self congratulatory lists of tick boxes or brain tips or problem……

In selective mutism (SM) awareness month… What about SMers?

  This was written for iSpeak’s Facebook site in July this year — it’s now October — SM Awareness Month and thought it might be a good idea to publish a short version here too. “I would love for SM events (or any event) to be more inclusive of those who might find it difficult……

The art world is Social (not mine! brilliant post by Sonia Boue — reblogged)

An important critique by Sonia Boué — systemic ableism in the arts.

Restructuring

Meltdowns and shutdowns can build up over time or happen seemingly out of nowhere. This is one I was aware of — building up, due to overload that I struggled to communicate, over many months. Since originally posting, recent conversations with autistic friends, not directly about meltdowns, have enabled me to find more words and……

The Playing Field

The girl stood on the edge of the playing field, alone. Always on the edge. Always alone. Always watching, even when it looked as if she wasn’t. Someone might come up behind her, might speak to her, expecting a reply, and she would feel compelled to utter some kind of sound, to express herself, to……

mute — from Dutch smelten to melt, make fluid

‘Misconstrued’ My words are glass and mirrors in your presence.   Might they fall in love — with not speaking? Hiding words away in desks under chairs behind doors in classrooms until they are broken?   Raw words Leak Spill Drip, bloody through cupped hands.   And boundaries? Mine are air and mist Unconsidered You assume And……

Interviewing Autistic Individuals

Originally posted on Everyday Asperger's:
? 1. When being interviewed for a potential job, adults on the autistic spectrum may appear as one of two extremes: 1) overly confident with an almost false persona or 2) extremely nervous and apologetic. 2. Rarely, during an interview, is an autistic jobseeker feeling at ease and content,…

unrequited love

Wanting To be like you   Another lead balloon Hangs in the air between us   Waiting   You carry on regardless   We chat Laugh   Wondering You make it look so easy Seeing Hearing Feeling Touching Thinking   While Transparent Hearing colour Touching sound Feeling words Seeing thought   Until you stop   Waiting  ……

diversity and a piece of white plastic

Autistic senses are tuned to pick up things, notice things, that others do not, as Rhi@OutFoxgloved wonderfully describes in this post ‘The day my autism saved my daughters life.’  Delicate antennae that are tuned into everything can result in overload and not picking up on things that might seem obvious to neurotypical people — like realising……