Our family is a five year veteran of Adams Camp. We are used to the weekly routine, which includes activities for everyone in the fam. While our son is receiving six hour intensive daily therapies, my other two boys get to go and do some fun stuff with our siblings. While the children are away Jenni and I have the opportunity to participate in some “parent conversations”.

In years past these “conversations” were a small group discussion with other parents of autistic children. It is a chance for parents to compare war stories, behavioral strategies, and various therapies. This group meetings are pretty cool, but if you know me then you know how horrible I do when I am thrust into a group of people I don’t know. I become a mute, or when I do speak I allow myself to say things that hours later I agonize over. So usually as the week goes on I become more comfortable sharing my opinions and thoughts…but in the first few days I remain mostly unheard.

Well this year they aren’t doing the small group format. It is more of a structured format that centers on a single issue for the entire week; and the topic that we are focusing on is BEHAVIOR. A gentleman who specialize in Behavioral Intervention is giving a highly educational class on creating new behavioral strategies for children with special needs. So far I have learned quite a bit on why children, and people behave in different ways. I have had to open my mind to the idea that the word “behavior” is not a negative one. Normally when I think of it my mind conjures up someone either playing by the rules of society or breaking them.

While the gentlemen was talking my mind wandered in and out of the presentation. Not because I was bored…but more because I knew my wife was taking serious notes from what he was saying. So, she was sort of a cognitive safety net for me…. Anyways, during one of my bout of distraction I was drawn toward starting out through the huge windows of the room we were in and out at the rolling mountain that are blanketed by pine trees. Here in this part of the Rockies many of the trees are turning a very pretty shade of red.

They are transforming from green to red because they are dying…slowly. The trees are dying from the Pine Beetle which are wiping out hundreds of thousands of trees all across the Rocky Mountains. Every once in a while the Pine Beetles goes through a high population cycle. This one has been especially bad, it started a few years ago and now it is a serious problem. How they kill the tree is by eating it from the inside out, and by the time you know the trees is in trouble it is too late. This mountain that I was looking at is really beautiful. It is a patchwork of brilliant streaks of red and green, It almost looks as if the Pine Beetle had some sort of pattern in mind when they choose which trees to strike and which ones to leave. There are not really many ways to stop this beetle from doing it’s damage.


THE TREES OF WINTER PARK AS THE PINE BEETLE SPREADS.  THIS SCENE EXTENDS FOR MILES AND MILES.


THIS USED TO BE A VERY VERY DENSE FOREST.  LIKE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT DENSE...

THE TREES IN THE BACKGROUND MOURN THEIR FALLEN PALS.  THE RED ONES KNOW THEY ARE NEXT...



ALL THIS FROM LITTLE TINY BEETLES.  UNDER ALL THE DESTRUCTION HOWEVER LIFE HAS STARTED AGAIN..


So of course that means this entire area is under a huge forest fire watch with all of the dead trees that surround us. Yes, they have done some clear cutting…but there are still dead tress standing as far as the eyes can see. While staring out at the window my attention came back into the room about the time when the instructor was saying the following:

“Sometimes Behaviors are not accurate indicators on what is going on inside people”.

Immediately the connection was made for me…

Just because a tree is green does not mean something isn’t eating it up on the inside.

Which also means just because someone appears to acting one way does not mean that is what is really happening in their heart. I have known too many people who appear to be perfectly happy who turned out to be extremely depressed with thoughts of hurting themselves…likewise I have know people that may appear to be gruff and unhappy who end up being the nicest people you would ever know.

This also translates to my experience with autism.  Many of the children or adults who are living with it may have behaviors that are strange for society to accept.  This does not mean that their brains aren't working just likes yours, or that their heart hurts any less if you pick on them, or that God does not love them as much as he loves anyone else. 

I guess don’t always judge a tree by it’s color or a person by their behavior. Sometimes getting to the roots of a tree or a person is the only way to gain a real insight into what is going on…