Welcome New Year 2016

Another year has passed and we are into the new, 2016 is going to be different, indeed it already has. Old neighbours rang to wish us happy new year, and we were the only people out this year really.
I rang a small bell and let off some party poppers.

we watched the big ben countdown on the telly after seeing in the new year and had a cuppa.
It has been a chilled christmas 2015 and different in lots of ways, but nice nonetheless.

The only thing is all the decorations coming down, I love christmas and like to keep my tree up for a few days more than the big one in the front room, but I also recognise that moving on is part of the change of year and new things, but I am not very good at that, but I want to get better at it.

Friendship & friends to be found in 2016

The last ten years have been the safest I felt in a church fellowship setting, and on lots of levels I found my place and was happy, even though  I rarely if ever met anyone outside of the few meetings  that happened at GG. Then Just before Christmas, we were told that this structure had gone, that the relationship would continue, as and when organised by others.

As a person on the autism spectrum, I have struggled to make lasting friendships, and the ones I did have circumstances or change of heart on the part of people meant they ended. For the first 38 years of my life I did not know I had Aspergers Syndrome, and when I did know the diagnosis, although it helped tremendously in lots of ways. It did not help in the relationship area because I had lost confidence years ago  in my ability to make friendships.

I feel lonely not because I am alone, I am happy with my own company mostly, but there are times, like when mum is ill, I need help and companionship to get through it, because I have to do the house stuff and look after her, which I don't mind doing at all, but it is a struggle to cope in those times.

Also another aspect of my lack of effort at trying to make friendships, is down to the fact that I am not sure whether people want to be my friend, I am really glad that Elaine Evans has linked up  with me and I am grateful for this relationship, but that is one person, I don't know if people want to be bothered  with a person with like me, also the other side of the thing is that people who don't know I have Aspergers Syndrome, so perhaps think something that is far from the case.

I will be 50 in 2016, and I want to be free of this emotional encumbrance, but I have to address the issue and actually start asking people if they will be my friend and explain to them, when appropriate about the past.
I actually feel that I don't really have very good friendship skills, even at home with mum as she often says that she wants to be my friend more, but  I get told I am selfish and don't care about her, perhaps that is why friendships failed in the past, but no one told me and maybe if they had told me  and maybe I am not a good friend to my mum because I don't know how to make and keep friends, or at least that is how it has seemed for me.

Thinking about 2016 and the floods of December 2015

As I have watched the news over the last few weeks with all the flooding, and the devastating effects of all that is going on for these people, what they have lost and what is so hard. I feel for all of them.
But there are other issues.
I see another thing going on and in a world where we are talking about climate change, all these floods have created a literal mountain of damaged furniture, white goods and carpets that just have to be dumped because they are polluted and dangerous and not salvageable. This in turn requires more energy and more resources, to make more and more.
Whilst I recognise that there are other people's lives and jobs involved in providing those goods, there is a disconnect with reality.
Paris december 2015 conference made thier agreement where the signing countries have made the 2. something degrees, reduction? and yet we are still as western nations pushing forward with all the strength we can muster, on manufacturing  and all other things that require energy in amounts that cannot be sustained, and other nations like India and China are now following in our footsteps, creating more and more pollution.
This planet is a living organism, and nations act like they can do as they want and it is no one else's business.
But the floods and the storms and the changes we are seeing, although science would not recognise this, I am really beginning to think that the rate of change has speeded up and that the planet does not recover totally before the continuing change progresses.
The floods are evidence of  the progressive desire for more and more and more of everything, without thought for the future.
I am beginning to consider what I can do myself reasonably to do my part, outside of what I am already doing.
The human mind in general has a higher opinion of itself in general terms and we have achieved a lot but the planet as it is, needs something far more radical than any human being can achieve, the disconnect and burying of multiple heads in the sand over decades and centuries requires a change that has not yet been imagined. 

New Year 2016 - the start of adventure

As the new year is just days away I am looking forward to the adventures ahead. New years eve will be different this year as our neighbours of 25 years had to move this year, and the new neighbours are doing the house before moving in so, no one to share NYE with.

I want to find more of Jesus this year and walk with him through the this year more deeply and the flame of his love shining more powerfully in me. His love flowing through me will change the world, his heart filling me with his joy, his light and the glory of heaven.

This is a time of hardship for so many people with all the floods and it is prayer and our position in heaven that will change things. There are tough times ahead but I want to bring Jesus to the land, heaven on earth as stated in the Lord's prayer, "May your will be done on earth as it is in heaven"!

What will the world look like in 15 or 20 years time if we take up the position we were made to fill. Justice and peace for all, love and care for all. Truth over ruling lies fed by the one who loves to do his own thing.

dreams that change the world held in the heart of the Creator, and given to his children to show his glory to the nations, what changes are afoot in the lead up to 2020, as we progress towards that time what will have transpired? and how will things look?

God's love going to shine through Autism Ability being revealed pt 2

Over the years people like Stephen Wiltshire have demonstrated amazing gifts in art and other areas of culture, but they have been regarded as autism savants. However, I believe that this idea or fact as it has been seen will be washed away over the next few years. As I said in pt 1. that communication is the issue with anyone with severe autism or more high functioning autism.
The focus has been on how to get us to function as the rest of society within it and making us square pegs try and squash into round holes, which is impossible, especially as research and science are beginning to find differences in the structure of the brain's of people on the spectrum.
I have the feeling that as more is learned about individuals and differences are understood more and more, we will be valued for what we can bring to the world, rather than being regarded, as an encumberance by some parts of society, and government.
At this point I want to say I am truly grateful for all the wonderful people who do such great work for all with Autism, and I know that they are looking for the best practice and doing the right thing, but I also see that the true numbers of people who have autism, are not really known, especially with adults, of which I am one. So things have got to change radically in some way, so that people on the autism spectrum who do not need 2 or three people to provide care, like myself, but still struggle to achieve a full time job.
Rather than forcing us in to work environments that we are not able to sustain for whatever reason because of individual difficulties (square peg into round hole).
Finding ways to enable and assist us into our own businesses perhaps using existing interests and gifts and providing support throughout the duration rather than setting us up to fail and fall flat on our faces
I also think that attitudes need to change, because this suggestion would be looked at and dismissed, because of bearuacray and closed minds. The present Government is wanting to lessen the benefit burden, but do not appreciate the stresses and incongruities of living with autism or aspergers.
It is demeaning for me to go to a Job Centre as I did up until 2006 and be faced with Jobcentre Officers who ignored my difficulties even after diagnosis. I felt humiliated that I was in the position of having to be at the Job Centre in the first place, and whenever I was there I felt like I wanted to run out the place, but had to force myself to endure the whole thing. These are the things that life on the autism spectrum throws at you and I have to say that although I did not choose to be on benefits, I am truly glad that the humiliation of dealing with the Jobcentre , was taken away, and  that I do not have to attend anymore. There are loads of similar stories out there and although my hope is that it has changed with the autism awareness  training that has taken place within the Job Centre, I don't want to find out until I need to.
We need to find ways to help people on the autism spectrum fit in in a way that is comfortable for them.

God's love going to shine through Autism ability being revealed pt 1

Over the next year the view of people with Autism is going to change radically. There is hidden ability and talent which needs help to be revealed. Gifts that have been hidden will be allowed to shine. This has already started in small ways but there will be more and more young autistic people, as well as adults who thought they had been left by the way who suddenly find that these abilities are now recognised. Indeed they will not just be recognised but they will find they can earn a living.
There will be buisnesses set up purely to support and help with the things that autistic people find difficult individually, it will be worth the money to train and learn about what each person needs because the skills  of these autistic individuals make it worth while.(I believe that all people on the spectrum are worth something, as I am on the spectrum myself)
Parents who thought they would have to provide for thier children for the rest of their lives will find that as people try new ways of connecting with thier children that the disconnect will begin to connect, and there are going to be some fabulous stories emerging over the next year and in the years following.

I know God loves and cares for all parents and all children, but he cares about those who are on the spectrum in a more tender way, as he does for all who travel their lives differently, on the earth, he has a plan for every person on the spectrum and even those unable to connect right now.

In the relatively recent past autistic children were left and no one did anything to help them because no one knew how, but there has been gradual change and the realisation that these children had rights as much as anyone else.
The more that people learn about how the autistic brain works, the less I hope they will want to change us to be like them (neurotypical - anyone who is not at the autistic end of the spectrum).
People on the spectrum with additional needs, would probably like to be rid of seizures(tonic colonic or epileptic) and the disconnect with the world must be confusing and upsetting, but autism is more about the inability to communicate needs and feeling and all the things that make us who we are.
It is more about finding ways to communicate, that are gentle for the individual and cause as little stress to them as possible, but add dignity and a better quality of life.

Success as Major Tim Peake gets to ISS

15th December 2015 was a landmark day, our first qualified Astronaut in space. I find it weird to think of the six men up there in the ISS and the busy time that Tim Peak is going to have. 6 months in weightlessness,doing experiments, finding out about how the lack of gravity affects the human body.
As I see things and consider the cooperation between Europe, Russia and America in regard to space flight.
I wonder Why? things are going to war over Ukraine? Why are people any people trying to blow the world up, when people like Tim Peake are up there doing things that may make our lives better.

The NASA/ESA/and Russian is somewhat amazing and I find it quite moving that this continues on with unfettered goodwill and understanding between three very different cultures, they have chosen to work together and signed agreements to do so, which just goes to prove that if the choice to live peacefully is made then it is done.

We live in a world of choices and the current environment of terror is the choice of people who hate peace and have gone down a path which is an absolute choice, justified in their minds and hearts.

The foolishness of returning to a past which was undoubtedly not a nice place to be then and will make things worse for the whole of Humanity, let alone make it better!?

I am pleased and proud of people who are prepared to take the risk to go into space to do stuff, even if the money seems extreme and we cannot see the point, as things seem to be so difficult financially in Europe,America and Russia.

In the year's ahead it is my prayer that all these things will be worked out as those that know what to do take on their responsibilities  

Tim Peake is due back on 6th June 2016, he has alot to do before then. I'll be thinking of him and the other astronauts alot over the coming days.