Cynthia Niswonger

Becoming informed about a thing changed the rigid black and white structure of what I thought I knew

What's it like when your daughter is diagnosed with cancer?

I'm coming up on eleven years of a milestone in my life

The air brushes my skin and moves through me

I am not meant to become some form of collateral damage

Thoughts are drawn together until they make no sense at all

Patiently I wait, we've been together a long time, my brain and me

When God made love in perfect form He saw that it was good

I sat out on the window ledge of my second story bedroom in my parent's home for what became the second to last…

If I could reach from where I am now and write a letter back to myself then

To all of you who choose kindness and patience one interaction at a time, I say thank you.

I am rapidly brushing up on a year since several people in my life have passed

I gather those moments by the window and clutch them to myself. I wrap the gratitude in with the sweet pricking…

“Oh, Lorena May! How nice of that mongrel dog to come on and carry you home."

Yes, much too big a job For such a simple rain, To clean up all of these stains We've made

What was it like to fly home, told not to wear the uniform you honored and were willing to die in by the country…

My sorrow has not moved in any direction that I can follow. I’ve read about all the emotions that I could expect

Flowers pressed in a book once so vibrant stemmed of green petals palest of pink blushed to moonlit white

I am evermore certain that he is a Duke. There was some catastrophic collision with a mistake of destiny; I am…

There are moments that catch my breath and make my heart tremble

I was seeing rocks, leaves, puddles, and wet and dry spots creating a pathway of perfect little hearts

For my mother Marian Griggs, with love (March 2, 1948-October 14, 2013)She took things ordinary and…

In early October Disney ditched the old Guest Assistance Card and switched to a new system called the Disability…

I wanted to write today because it became apparent in the tiny words "Can I call you, I want to ask you some…

I am confident in saying that to her and to dad all that struggle was worth it.

One of my goals in writing has been to describe the process. Not only the feelings but the actual stepping stones

So I decided to sit down and write out about my struggle for fitness and weight loss—ROUND TWO. Ding ding!

Last year at about this very time Nicholas began his first day of special needs Kindergarten.

Today I want to tell you how Nicholas began, and how he came to begin again.

There are times, like today when a dust settles around my spirit and I feel, for lack of any better word,…

I feel the stares, I am hearing the comments. I realized that I do feel them almost all of the time. I am often…

So in the heart of every mother lives the barely contained beat of a primal animal's heartbeat. It rears up and…

I Am... I am the spirit of the vibrantly hued flower Whose color flashes warning of a siren song I am the…

There is a physical sound to the rising of my hope and the raising of my awareness of his progress. It tingles in…

Many times I have found myself standing in the vast empty lands of the scapes of long empty hallways of my own…

As May shut its door, I feel compelled to try my hand at hashing out my attempt to honor the lives of 5 Autistic…

It's taken 3 years in Autism land to feel stronger about some of the things that are said in regards to my son's…

I believe in the pure sweet clear musings of a poetess & the quill & ink & the power of pen.

Birds herald the coming of Spring as one big group headlong they go upward spinning in circles of…

As another phase of my life drifts to close I am aware of a few things. I am acute, to my bones and back, in touch…

Winter blew in early that yearThe trees gave up their autumn fineryAnd settled into stark black and…

"Take me there," she said, the little sister into the eyes of the olderAnd so she began again once upon a…

So Christmas has rolled around again. And we've come so far from where we were last year! Though there was love and…

There is a lonely quality to the dark that falls in a hospital room at night. Overnights have a held breath hushed…

December 2, 2010 - I've had another thought on what makes Autism so special in my life. I was online this morning…

Thanksgiving 2010 - I was reflecting on this last year and feeling all the changes both good and bad.I was…

Up on the hill she stands seeing from a muffled distance the world below her lazily unfold row upon row sit the…

And so the circle has come full back to where it is from. It has been one year that I knew my path had gone…

October 3, 2010 It's been awhile since I could write. It has to be admitted that though I am still in a positive…

I wish I tumbledlike rolling waves of tall green grasses in a meadow somewhere beyond the road that leads…

In the cool cast by her shade there under the tendrils of her wispy limbs breath held heavy on edge in…

She is fire trapped behind glass deep in the coolness of a watery blue bits of her scattered and wavering in…

Neeko began his in-home A.B.A. therapy. I guess I should break down what that is. Applied Behavior Analysis. It's…

I’ve been away so it has been hard for me to write in any flowing congruous way. In fact, it’s just been flat out…

December 21, 2009 I met Sam today, the son of the woman who told me Nicholas had Autism and who held me that first…

I am from a Navy father soaked in love for the red, white, and blue born of celebration the ending of war…

Even after all of these years I believe it was Rupert who swaggered in and saved me. A cat as ordinary as any other…

I'm adding my drop to the ocean of pages, literature, diagnostic criteria, and expert voices out there because in…

October 26, 2009 I called the Regional Center today. It is an organization that provides help for families with…

On Mother's Day, I feel a need to reflect. There are things I've learned as a direct result of my walk with my…

Again we must remember the spectral aspect of Autism. If we view it like a rainbow in our minds we can follow it…

What is Autism? I wanted to wait awhile and educate myself as to what it is said to be and what it looks like for…

October 23, 2009 Today I met with the mother of a 16-year-old boy who is Autistic. She echoed, but in a way, I…