“God has created the great Saints who are like the lilies and the roses, but He has also created much lesser saints and they must be content to be the daisies or the violets which rejoice His eyes whenever He glances down.  Perfection consists in doing His will, in being that which He wants us to be.” (Quote from St. Therese of Lisieux, Story of the Soul.) Indeed, I hope that in this reflection we will all consider being content with the gifts and talents that God has given us to better thrive in them and not be so worried about comparing ourselves with others.  The film Zootopia beautifully illustrates this with the concept of such a diversity of animals trying to live and excel together.

I begin this reflection on Zootopia and the Shakira song “Try Everything” with the above St. Therese quote which I feel are very suitable for this autism awareness month (my apologies for the slightly immodest dancing animal in the music video). Let me share a memory from 2 years back when I had just been a supply Educational Assistant for a few months for World Autism Day 2016.  I was in one of the ASD classes at Princess Anne School where I got to observe the kids raise the autism flag in solidarity with everyone with autism and supporters all over the world. While they raised the flag for autism they shared their gifts and talents and celebrated what they brought and contributed uniquely to humanity. During the sharing the Shakira song “Try Everything” was playing.  Later that day I was drawn to the movie Zootopia and decided to go see it, quickly finding out that it was the theme song for the film. I was deeply moved as I looked at my own Non-Verbal Learning Disability, the kids with autism and realized that we were all fighting to try new things and to be who we were meant to be.

Indeed, each of us must do the work God made us for.  I encourage with some minor reservations for content for adults, adolescents and more mature children with Catholic parental support and discussion to “not give up…don’t give in till we reach the end then we will start again” to quote her lyrics.  Indeed, we need to be willing to try new things, even if we feel like we might fail at them as the song suggests. Since my mom’s death I have been looking at trying many new things such as: trying to follow my mom into the teaching profession by attending teachers college, taking a new college Developmental Services Worker program and becoming an Educational Assistant, starting my own website for St. Therese’s Vision for Disability Giftedness, or even smaller skills like cooking, swing dancing, etc.  My life experience has been that no matter the challenges we can get through life and keep trying without falling into despair. This is especially the case if we know the truth about ourselves as Pope Benedict XVI stated in his 2005 inaugural Mass: that each of us is (paraphrased) created as a thought of God and is willed loved and necessary. Therefore, I encourage all of us even when life is tough to keep going, to keep trying in the spirit of St. Therese, and don’t let others try to define us by negative stereotypes or put us down!




 

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