It is hard to feel ready for this.  I wasn’t ready on the day that I got the diagnosis.  I wasn’t ready on the day that the support coordinator asked us what our goals were for Anna. And there is something every single day that catches me feeling unready for the task of parenting a girl with autism.

Many years ago, on a brief, ill-fated experiment with being a girl scout, I remember standing in the staging area, waiting for the parade to start.  All of us were lined up in our uniforms, and my friend looked down at my hands.  “Where are your gloves?!” she asked.  As I looked at the troop of girls with their gloves on, and my naked hands, the music started, our march began, and I went ahead without my gloves, not quite ready but on the move anyway.

I think of other parents of special needs girls and hope that this will be a helpful place for them. I hope it will be a helpful place for me, too. The march is on, the music is playing, ready or not.

Of course, there is another sense in which we use the phrase. A boxer might go without gloves against an opponent in a “bare-knuckle” fight. It is more intense, unmediated, without protection. Leaving off your gloves to punch a punching bag might toughen up your hands, strengthening muscles, connective tissue, bones… Yes.