This is a continuation of the post Autism Awareness Flight (1).
More Farms
The miles of farmland stretch on and on and on. I look upon our Planet from this vantage point and see a vast expanse shaped and raped to meet our “needs.” I ask myself: Is the Earth really ours to change so severely? Are our children ours to bend to our will?
Immediately the “but they have tos” begin. But they have to learn to live in society. But they have to fit in. Have to read, write, eat, socialize, hold a pencil like this, hold a fork like that, look people in the eye when they talk to them.
Or maybe they don’t. Maybe we don’t.
Maybe we can move into more harmonious relationships with the Earth. Maybe we don’t need to (figuratively) beat our children into submission. Maybe we can let them grow and blossom naturally. Maybe we will be surprised to discover that who and how they are is just fine.
And Still More Farms
I am waiting for the terrain to change. I am waiting for an elegant way to end this post which became so long that it became two.
But there is no change. The neat grid stretches on.
Chicago, Lake Michigan
Houses. Buildings. Roads.
A world of concrete and rooftops covers the land now. The land has been so utterly transformed by people that whatever was there before can no longer be found.
I am relieved as we fly over Lake Michigan. Though I know Her waters have been polluted, I imagine that She has looked this way, at least from my vantage point in the sky, for a long time.
Reflections During the Decent
My flight today took me 1690 miles across the country. It was only in Her most inhospitable spots, Her highest mountains, deepest gorges, and driest deserts that the Earth managed to remain mostly unmodified. Is this Her way of keeping a part of Herself pure and true?
Are the so-called walls of autistic children a defense against being altered against their will, their way to remain pure, a means for retaining their true essence?
MORE Farms and Detroit
As I continue to survey the acres of Earth distorted by us, I realize that we will never know Earth in these spots. We have changed her too thoroughly.
Yesterday, I hiked in a canyon which was carved thousands of feet into an enormous expanse of rock that was once the bottom of the ocean. The Earth? She will cleanse Herself. She will reshape Herself. She will survive this time with us for she has survived billions of years and will survive billions more.
But we are determining our legacy now with each thought and word and deed.
What we have already done to our Planet and what we have already done to our children is done. What we do now, what we say tomorrow, and the actions we take next week and next year, these remain in our power to control.
Final Thoughts
Though my flight took me across many state lines, I did not see markings demarcating state boundaries drawn upon the Earth. There are no lines between states or countries other than those we set down. There are no walls between people other than those we define.
I look forward to the day when there are no lines drawn between us. I invite a time when there is no autistic, no divergent, and no normal. I welcome a time when there is an honoring of all diversity as an essential component of the whole.
Namaste.
Swan Mothers 
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