I am working with a few children with special needs who are in the special education programs at their schools. One of them is moderate-severe autistic and sometimes has temper tantrums and displays other behaviors that are unusual. I determined that I would love him no matter what from our first tutoring session and I told him so. I said, "James, you can hit me and throw temper tantrums all you want but I'm going to love you anyway so you might as well sit down and learn how to read." He eventually sat down and stopped hitting me and participated in the lessons.

I have some friends that are adults with special needs issues. I wanted to reject them and actually exclude them from activities with me. I didn't feel quite right about these thoughts. I then remembered James, I could love him even with bad behavior so why not try loving my friends who sometimes display bad behaviors?

I felt prompted by Mother Mary to let go of my criticism of these people and love them like I love my students. Part of me resisted this but part of me thought, "why not try a new approach"?

I went ahead and opened my heart to my special needs adult friends. I visualized love for them and felt love for them. I reminded myself that they really don't want to manifest poor behaviors. I was able to maintain my harmony with them by focusing on their positive qualities. To my surprise many positive qualities of these special friends revealed themselves to me. I actually felt blessed by their presences. Believe me, I would not have even imagined this to happen, but I think I that Mother Mary had something to do with this.

After this initiation I was given a special picture of Mother Mary by a friend. It is so beautiful. It seems alive. Receiving this picture I believe was a direct response to my challenge of accepting, with love, these "special needs" adult friends. I pray for continual love to flow abundantly with, in, through and around all friends and Heartfriends, especially those with special needs.

Pearl I have very similar experience with the 'mentally challenged' and my own 'Dweller.' I asked to be shown how to overcome this and was given a dream in response. What a wakeup call that was. I hope you come to the Summer Conference and we can talk.

I volunteer with a group of adults with special needs and it is a joy. Most of the participants that are at the group are very harmonious and I love to hear thier laughter. The group is called "social activity group." Often food is involved and I see that the food could be healthier. I am grateful for the time to spend with such innocent beings. At times and more so in the begining, I felt uncomfortable with the differences. They make me smile most of the time.