“Do you have the patience to wait till your mud settles and the water is clear? Can you remain unmoving till the right action arises by itself?”

-Lao Tzu

Meet Luca, he’s five now. He loves letters and drawing and the color red but not so much, the color blue. He has the focus of a master and the drawing skills of an artist. From a very young age, he expressed his love for words. “Delicious” and “paleontologist” were the types of words that effortlessly rolled off his tongue in a little boy voice. He was curious about octagons and fonts. Friends of Luca’s parents, Wendy and Rob, told them that they were lucky because he was gifted. Luca was their first child and as all parents know, children don’t come with directions or a “how to” hand-out. They had nothing to go off of but the innate love and support that they have for their son. As time went on, some of his interests progressed into obsessions and moments of confusion into tantrums.

One night that Wendy describes as feeling like she was punched in the stomach, Rob came to her with his realization that Luca checked all of the boxes for being on the autism spectrum. Days later it came up again, this time from Wendy’s doula who helped bring Luca into this life. And so started the journey of a family with one step after the other into the unknown. A story that caused massive shifts in perspectives, parenting techniques and for Wendy the birth of her third baby, I am LOVE, an organization inspired by Luca and further expressed to Wendy via divine intervention. It was a venture that no-one saw coming.

Wendy is a friend that I met shortly after moving to Carlsbad and it was an instant of knowing that we had to share Luca’s story on the show. This conversation is about a life changing diagnosis, the power of love, the blessings that come from lightening up our grip on life and learning how to, once and for all, love ourselves. It is a powerful recount of one family’s sudden life shift and how as a unit they are learning to find more balance every day. Thank you for tuning in and we know that there will be takeaways for everyone within this episode. Enjoy!

Namaste-