Grand Prize Winner
Julie's story

Ryan Time

In this fast pace world chocked full of video games, fast food and triple vente skinny mocha lattes my son Ryan has taught me to slow down and breathe. He was born with Muscular Dystrophy and a quiet, determined gentleness that fills our house today. Ryan never met any of the standard milestones. I allowed myself to throw away all those developmental books, and I learned to trust Ryan to know when he was ready to try something new. In our house we talked of "Ryan time". This was step one in a long journey of freeing myself from society's expectations as well as my own.

I soon realized that I didn't want to continue to participate in the highly competitive world of graphic design. I needed time with Ry and my husband generously agreed. At first I shied away from playgrounds and playgroups. To me our son was in a world unto himself that I was only beginning to understand.

Slowly we engaged ourselves in more outside activities. I learned that we both loved the water. We played endlessly in the neighborhood pool giggling our summers away. Another activity that we shared was our fondness for cooking. Ry would sit in our kitchen rolling out dough or stirring something bubbling on the stove. Preparing dinner would take forever, but none of us cared. It didn't matter if our kitchen looked like a disaster or if we ran out of time to cook a side dish. The process of cooking together and eating together was more important than what we ate.

Ryan has taught me the importance of slowing down, breathing and appreciating the one dish dinners and the laughter in the pool and even the disaster in our kitchen. It's a gift in this caffeinated world to be able to slow down and actually enjoy "Ryan time" while truly not concerning myself with the many untouched and less important activities spinning wildly around me.