Sensory Snapshot

Photos aren't always as simple as they seem.

Found this picture on Facebook's On This Day feature, snapped by my Handler on June 12, 2010. It looks like a pretty composition of flowers with me, hazy, moving down the street on the left. What you can't see, and what I remember about this moment, is we had to walk a good 15 city blocks back to our apartment, and I was in full-blown #sensory overload - even on this seemingly calm and beautiful street. The day was especially warm and white and overwhelmingly bright, and we'd just come from a few hours of visiting our friends' new baby. I was burnt out from the engagement and uncomfortable in my skin and in my clothes and I just wanted to be back in our safe space with the AC on. I think I walked strides ahead of my Handler (again, back before I knew how powerful and helpful holding his squeezing hand could be) the entire way, frantically chasing down our final destination in my attempt to stave off a shutdown and seek safety.

It's this sort of subtle way that #SPD hides in plain sight: the woman speeding down the street attempting to escape from her own neurology, desperate to touch some sort of base like in her childhood games of tag - the bushes and stoops that surround her, a jumbled blur that her brain can't quite piece together; the painful sound of sirens and cars whirring by. Many feet behind her, the man snapping pictures of what he deems beautiful.

And aren't we?

*Originally posted on Coming to My Senses on Facebook on 6/12/17