Asperger would often just sit with the children, reading poetry and stories to them from his favorite books.

 

“I don’t want to simply push from outside’ and give instructions, observing coolly and with detachment,” he said.

“Rather, I want to play and talk with the child all the while looking with open eyes both into the child and into myself, observing the emotions that arise in reaction to everything that occurs in the conversation between the two of us.”

– Steve Silberman, Neurotribes

Tears streamed down my cheeks as I read this.

Was Hans Asperger talking about himself or about me?

 

From trying to make Mohit ‘indistinquishable’ from others,

I had reached this stage of just observing him.

He took me to a place of meditation.

A place where I felt loved and accepted, just as I was.

 

This spread over to my students too. I realized I looked at them differently.

When I worked with them, I had to be fully present.

Hence each session was like a calming, meditation session.

 

This process from expecting to accepting, took years.

Years of failing, crying, struggling, hustling.

 

Finally, I let go of my preconceived notions to see these brilliant individuals shining in all their glory- right in front of me.

 

How could I have missed it all these years?

 

The light was always there.

But so entrenched was I in my own darkness that I couldn’t see the light.

 

 

Would I change anything in my life?

 

No. I wouldn’t.

 

The past is an interpretation. The future is an illusion. The world does not move through time as if it were a straight line, proceeding from the past to the future. Instead time moves as if it were a straight line proceeding from the past to the future. Instead time moves through and within us, in endless spirals. Eternity does not mean infinite time, but simply timelessness.

If you want to experience eternal illumination, put the past and the future out of your mind and remain within the present moment.

 

• Elif Shafak, The Forty Rules of Love

 

 

Because this is what Mohit and all my students do. They live in the present moment.

 

Can we learn this lesson of being fully present in the now, from them?

 

If we do, we’ll see them in their brightness and beauty.

And with acceptance will come progress.

 

Are you ready to let go of your expectation and trade it for acceptance?