Practicing Gratitude
“He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has.”
We often enter families' lives because something isn't going according to plan... whether it's a child's recently diagnosed learning difference, their uncharacteristic performance in a challenging class, or simply their disengagement from academic pursuits, families often come to us in distress over what is not, what is lacking.
Thanksgiving is a wonderful time to practice gratitude for what IS working in the minds of our loved ones: the unique ways in which we each think, process, and consequently move through the world. We express our gratitude for family and friends...but rarely for the true prosperity of being conscious, the luck of living in our own minds and being able to think for ourselves.
In my family, Thanksgiving dinner would never make it to the table without the combined efforts of the executive functioning mastermind who schedules the busy day of cooking for an on-time arrival at the table, the divergent thinker who somehow manages to reinvent turkey and dressing, the whiz with the long term memory who still remembers my grandmother's chocolate pie recipe though it's nowhere to be found in writing... our strengths are complementary and every mind's approach has something to contribute to the feast.
This Thanksgiving, consider stepping back from worries of achievement and standardized outcome— and instead raise a toast to your child’s unique mind. And indeed, your own. Let's celebrate every individual's abundant neurodiversity instead of grieving the miraculous mind's refusal to homogenize.
Elisabeth Gray
Founder and Director
Oxford Tutors NYC