A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.

So labels, the things I have on my containers in the cupboard, flour, sugar, baking powder.

But we also label people. And we are somehow defined by the labels we are given by society.

Adopted, Diabetic, Mentally challenged, Autistic, Alcoholic, Christian, Pagan, Bi-polar, scrapbooker, all labels that conjure up an impression of what a person is like.

But people are always so much MORE than their labels aren’t they? The label only highlights one small aspect of who they are.

Are we labeled to our detriment?

Do our labels give cause to people shying away from us, misjudging us?

I struggle with the point of labels. On the one hand, it can bring understanding, on the other it can box a person into something that they are not.

When you are dealing with a set of behaviours that make life difficult, what difference will a label make? I was kinda asked this a couple of days ago and it got me musing.

When I married Mr Shamrock and started to realise things were different with how we inter related, when I shared with Mr Shamrock, or anyone, it was always *I* was the problem, *I* needed to be a better wife, read Proverbs 31 more. With the boys, once again, it was MY fault, if I was a better mother,more consistent, more this, more that. I was forever trying to change ME in the hope that things would work better.

Then we were given a LABEL!!!! A label of AUTISM!!!! And I breathed a sigh of relief, it wasn’t all ME. It wasn’t MY FAULT. It was nobody’s fault. But with it also came the grief and realisation, it will always be this way. It isn’t going to change. Things will improve, but this will not go away.

And I needed to come to a place of acceptance. And acceptance came through understanding. Not to say I still do not have my ‘down’ days.

What would have happened without a label?

Celtic Lad’s needs would not have been met, Celtic Dingo would have been smacked whenever he was ‘naughty’ and I would have left Mr Shamrock. Without an autism label, I could quite easily call him neglectful and emotionally abusive. That is how it comes across sometimes.

BUT ………………….

WITH a label, I understand these three amazing men in my life are wired differently. And because they are wired differently, I understand they will not and sometimes CAN NOT see the world as I do. That they find me as differently wired as I find them. They find me as frustrating sometimes to understand, as I find them. The lucky thing for me is the world is geared for people like me.

And there are ways, methods, strategies for coping.

And what does a label do for those who are being labeled?

Relief? That it is not their fault either?

Anger? Why me?

Sadness? That this is how it will always be?

No, a label does not change the situation at all, it doesn’t change who a person is, but it can and does change how you view it. It can give you understanding and ultimately peace.

Hugs to those who have labels and feel discriminated by it.

Hugs to those who have labels and are struggling to come to terms with it.

Hugs to those who have labels and have embraced it.