Planting Flowers

I think a lot about how far Sam has come over the years. 

In what seems like not too many years ago, it was tough to get Sam to leave the house. Language was difficult - it was hard for him to understand and it was hard for him to find words; it was hard to keep up. 

The world moved too fast. 

There were uncomfortable smells. Textures were difficult. Few things in the outside world were (and are) predictable. The world felt unsafe and hard to deal with.

All of these challenges still exist to different degrees (and likely always will), but he's come a long way.

I think about this often. I especially think about this when he's doing something like participating in a planting activity with one of his support groups, surrounded by people he's not super familiar with, with his hands in the dirt, planting flowers - and being proud of it. 

This would have been unthinkable not too many years ago.