August 17, 2015

When I eulogized my friend Jake at his funeral and moved so many persons lost in grief to lift themselves with a standing ovation, I was transformed from one who could not really see himself as a potent orator or inspiring presenter to one who is exactly that. Going forward, I know that this is part of my destiny. I know my Hoosier nonverbal autistic being moves whoever I communicate with in the depths of their hungry spirituality. I love and cherish them and they me. I am transformed in my nature and so is the world around me. Tearful effort could never have achieved this result. Easily, the willingly thick ropes and proof looking “realistically” at me never influencing another from stage vanished. Where did they go? They went to the rubbish pile of bad thinking that had shaped me before.

When whatever people live as true poorly fits a new presentation, we call this “transformation.” I have discovered that the willingly lost image illusion is totally related to the thoughts our consciousness once said were true and now abandons by choice, and not underlying a new physical reality. In transformation for myself, I am like Michaelangelo obliterating what was not David so that the beauty of David trapped in the stone can be wonderfully available for all to know. Even with amazing physical hearing capacity, little listening did I have to witness that whispers in my own head tightly wove traps that insipidly deafened me to life’s possibilities. As I continue to struggle with this sometimes, I am truly clear that who we each are is transformation waiting to happen in a moment. We are each perfectly well as human beings. Rarely do we relate that way.

Lost in our thinking for each other, we limit God’s grace for us. This process of dissolution of imaginary bonds has happened time and again for me in the last four and one-half years of being discovered competent, then moving from life skills to opportunities to write, speak, teach and now inspire others to teach. Yesterday my friend Kelsey, who “lost” her life skills designation at North Central High School to a Core 40 placement in another transformation, told a dad whose son is clearly competent to stop denying his son’s competence and let him join the world of voices with a new perspective. When life’s voice that I helped Kelsey find begins to give life, as it did with dad before my eyes, transformation gains momentum. More than one being is transformed- dad, son, Kelsey and me. Son typed, “Dad looks like I left Autisms long land behind.” We are in the presence of new inspired transforming love witnesses without old limits. The threads of useless thoughts that bind are loosed for community. When I come to your school, I promise to transform, and so will our possibilities to share and grow the just health and wealth of our community.

John Smyth
August 17, 2015

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Copyright 2015, Jon Smyth. All rights reserved.