My routines not only help me functioning in everyday life and carry me through difficult times, they also make me experience the best day of my life every day. 🤗

#AutisticJoy #ActuallyAutistic #AuDHD #neurodivergent @autistics

Today I experienced such an intense moment of autistic joy during my walk with Lumi.

In the evening we usually go for a short walk through the small park around a beautiful old church in our neighborhood. While we were doing so, I could hear the sound of the organ and people singing from the inside.

I moved closer to the church and it sounded and felt like the music came out of the building itself, like the stones and the glass were singing. It really touched my heart on a deep level. The whole building became a huge instrument.

#ActuallyAutistic #AutisticJoy #AuDHD #neurodivergent #music @autistics

I got this fantastic dress from Princess Awesome for Pi Day, but wasn't feeling well enough to wear it then. Since I just dyed my hair yesterday, this seemed the perfect opportunity to try it on and show off new color 𝑎𝑛𝑑 new dress:

#MathDress #AutisticJoy #TransJoy

I still think that Dylan Thomas' "Fern Hill" is a perfect poem... So I'm sharing it here, if you need a poem today. Maybe read it out loud, it's got such a lovely music to it.

https://poets.org/poem/fern-hill

#poetry #mastopoets #wales #autisticJoy #literature

Just a casual work day… 

… making fidgets :) This is a ‘galaxy’ Zorble! It features both a galaxy black and sparkling blue/purple elixir filament to create a really pretty visual effect. ✨

Perfectly pocketable. Perfectly squishable.

https://brittbuilds3d.etsy.com

I offer 20% off my entire store to all Mastodon users —> Use code MASTO20 as checkout.

#BrittBuilds3D #SmallBusiness #ADHD #AutisticJoy

*For orders outside the U.S. or Canada, please DM me. 🫶🏻

Another anecdote of autistic joy.

This one takes place after the first Addams Family movie came out. Two neurodivergent friends and I (one was autistic, one ADHD, with me audhd; funny how we tend to form these trios) would go to the same dollar theater several times a week to go watch this movie. The employees there came to recognize us. We'd fill the time before the movie singing the lyrics to the TV show's theme song (with appropriate finger snapping of course). I even started bringing printouts of the lyrics in case anyone else wanted to join in. No one ever did though. In fact, there was seldom more than a few people in the theater with us. Maybe for the best?  

And since the three of us were also playing the Vampire ttrpg at the time, our GM decided--after us having watched the movie one afternoon--to play a game right afterwards where our characters were invited to an Addams party. What a blast that was!

#ActuallyAutistic #AutisticJoy @autistics

Does anyone like to hear anecdotes of autistic joy?

I just read a post talking about autistic people's love of trains, and while I don't share that particular one exactly, I do have one or two other loves when it comes to infrastructure.

When I was in elementary school, we had a vending machine for milk, but it was always out of order. This made me sad because there was just something about getting nourishment from a machine that captured me. It wasn't until the last day of school that, on my way out with my mother, I noticed that the machine was now working. I insisted that she buy me some milk from it, which I'm sure seemed weird, but even by then I was used to being unusual.

The apex of this particular love came when my older brother took me to the college he was going to (I was still pre-teen at that point). I don't remember why we went there, but he took me to the lunchroom (or whatever it was called) to get something to eat. All along one wall was a bank of vending machines of every kind. And along another wall were floor to ceiling windows overlooking the airport (we were a few stories up).

The high I felt, eating my favorite soup* from a can both from and pre-heated by a machine while watching planes come and go was indescribable. I desperately wanted to go back but alas, never got to.

* Actually I'm not sure if it was my favorite soup at the time, or if that's when it became my favorite soup. 🤷

#ActuallyAutistic #AutisticJoy @autistics