Putting It Forward

If you've been paying attention, you've seen a few changes in the images in my sidebar. (What? You didn't notice? You didn't even look? You have better things to do with your time than stare at my blog page and spot every nuance of change? Shaa. Whatever.)

One of the new buttons over there===>
is for a site called THE BLOGGERS ANNEX. It's new to the net, or newish anyway, and the concept behind it is rather cool. In response to the question "What is the point of this site?" the developers of the Annex say this:

"Basically, the idea is that only the best posts will be published. Our hope is that it will feel like an honor to have something published here. If you have something in your archives that you’re in love with—something you want to give more exposure to, we’d love to take a look at it.

And maybe you don’t really care about submitting something. Maybe you’re just here to read. Because we’ve raised the bar so high, you’ll know that every time you click on the site you’ll find a fantastic post, and maybe meet a writer that you otherwise might not have met."

So. Neato, huh? I heard about the place, checked it out and joined. Because, yeah, I wanted to see if what I write would cut the mustard. I am a little bit self serving and egocentric like that. But you know what? It worked. They like me, they really like me! I submitted some pieces and today I am published there! If'n ya wanna, you can re-read (if you haven't memorized it already with all of the resurfacing this post tends to do!) the succinct announcement of Andrew's diagnosis as a card-carrying member of ASD. The post is here. More about Bloggers Annex is here.

Lots and lots of water has passed under the bridge since that first moment sitting at a table in the clinic hearing that word in association with my kid for the first time. And lots and lots of strength, support and understanding has poured into our lives. And empowerment. But I don't suppose I will ever forget the moment itself, the way life froze and my heart ached as we listened to the expert examiners reveal their findings.

I suppose I still have a lot to say about that.

But for now, it's still just those 11 words. Please tell me you stopped by.