We meet and begin.
Initially there is a pointed focus.
Your concerns – valid.
Tears – real
Delights – palpable.
Insights into family life often revolve around solely on your little one, or not so little one.
The aperture of your lens may be narrow. Sometimes, with urgency and confusion, the deeply felt emotions are rightfully at the forefront. Milestones are not met. Family life is chaotic. Efforts are made to the best of your abilities, but doing all that you can with everything that you know you share it feels that you are falling short. Tears swell in your child’s eyes and in yours. You find yourself at a loss. The unpredictability is often unsettling. Your love for your child is so strong.
At the same time, we share sad smiles and happy tears.
We begin to learn how adjust the focus in a lens that many times is foggy.
This haziness is understandable.
Yet, the aperture slowly widens and the lens reveals a brighter, more distinct frame. I see you begin to envision something that encompasses more growth in not only your child, but also yourself, and you come to realize that changes are also happening within your family. What was once unpredictable, now is better scaffolded with your foresight and reflection.
As we journey, my aperture widens too.
And, becomes more clear.
Your unique way of living is felt.
Meaningful moments within your family become visible.
We recollect about family life as Pittsburgh sports fanatics, strong faith-based practices, unruly Italian spaghetti dinners, sharing Challah during Shabbat, waking in the morning to smiley-faced pancakes, snuggling in a huddle saying prayers, and reading bedtime stories of roaring dinosaurs or pausing to gaze at glowing silver crescent moons, taking trips to the (sometimes too vibrant), farmers market for choosing the “best” apples or gathering to go to museums to encounter, with wide-eyes, “real” space ships. You share about birthday celebrations with special vanilla fudge cake (every. single. year.), engaging in holiday traditions of plastic pastel egg hunts, chasing children through daffodil filled fields, or making a long-awaited trip to the sandy golden beach.
And then, in time, your family life story unfolds before me.
I meet your loved ones.
We have shared joys that fully color the picture.
We welcome your child’s discoveries amidst our work.
But, over time, family life emerges, often stronger…and different.
We also embrace and welcome soft and endearing baby siblings or navigate rivalry and cumbersome tousles around the game of “Trouble” or who sits int he front in downhill sledding. We embark on first days of school, everything in between, and last days of summer.
And, they grow.
Your family spends days together swinging, sliding and climbing at the park, playing super-heroes, building Legos, playing, reading (to all hours) Harry Potter and shares so many, many ways, you have learned to connect and play.
Then, seemingly, overnight.
We begin to consider transitions launching into adolescence and young adulthood. Your child is creating their own identity, gathering together with a friend to play Minecraft, molding clay into pottery, participating in theatre or ballet dancing, playing a squeaking trombone, beating on drums and the like, or receiving an honored achievement, a gold medal in the Special Olympics wheelchair race. Learning, writing, acquiring life skills. They may even take steps to get a driver’s license, explore vocations, or potential college paths.
At the same time, Through it all dynamic family life shifts and expands to the wider backdrop of the world beyond our early days.
Ever-changing.
Your child and family evolve into to new ways of being.
Still, together.
But, embarking, living, as times moves on.
And, we also have shared sorrows that dim.
Grief and loss envelopes.
Separations.
Illnesses.
Accidents.
Deaths.
Setbacks.
Realities.
Some things still remain unpredictable.
In these occurrences, the picture changes. We adjust our work together.
As the years pass, through it all, family occupations evolve, dissolve, and transform, and with hope relationships blossom as families love, endure, cling tight and sometimes, at the same time, release, giving wings in whatever ways are meaningful for each child.
Then, through it all–
You, truly understand our work. You see the difference.
It is experienced and etched on the pictures.
Within your family life.
And, I, too see and feel the difference. There are series of photos over time held in my mind.
You family album becomes your story that I am honored to witness.
Through it all, I am with you, viewing the broader landscape, bringing forth opportunities for occupational harmony while experiencing the seasons of change and meaningful moments in your family life with those that you love.
Beginning with only a portal, the panorama of family living becomes full.
Through it all.
As you cross the threshold, I welcome families through OT family-centered work. Especially in longitudinal instances, this work is the gift of much more than a clinical session as I accompany children and their families on life’s journey. Through it all, I join with families professionally, and humanly behold their family life.
~Dr. Stacy
Author: Stacy Sue Rosello, OTD, MA, OTR/L
Editor: Grace Anne Rosello, BA
Founder, Embrace the Child, ® Ltd.
Copyright © 2024 Stacy Sue Rosello
