A Prayer for Nose Blowing

Last updated on: October 4, 2011 at 2:04 pm by Dilshad Ali

A Prayer for Nose Blowing 2011-10-04T14:04:56-04:00 Dilshad Ali

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

I pray for a lot of significant and insignificant things at all times of the day. I have a standard group of things I ask for when I finish one of my five daily salats — let my children grow to be good Muslims and good humans, help Lil D (my eldest) to manage his autism, give Lil D peace and happiness, ease his suffering, help him find a way to communicate, make him independent, help Dr. M – my husband – and I to be good parents and make the right decisions, help ease the suffering in the world, help me magically lose 10 pounds – you know, important stuff.

And I have the random things I pray for – please God, no tantrums when Lil D gets off the bus; please God, let Amal have do well on her test; please God, let Amal eat fast tonight so we can make it to swimming practice on time; please God, is Hamza starting ANOTHER cold? Let it end quickly.

Here’s my random prayer from this morning — something I’ve prayed for many times in the past, a prayer that has yet to be answered — please God, let Lil D learn how to blow his nose. Lil D is 11 years old, and he cannot blow his nose.

Now, on the list of all the things that he cannot do and that we are trying to teach him do (bathe himself, remember to wash his hands after he goes to the bathroom, put his dirty clothes in the laundry, dress himself completely without me having to lay out his clothes and verbally prompt him through it, and many other life skills), blowing his nose is usually not a top priority. That is, until cold and flu season starts and he gets a cold. And his nose starts running. And he is unable to blow his nose.

And that is a big problem. Imagine having a cold with a runny nose that is dripping, and instead of grabbing a tissue and giving said nose a big honk and cleaning the gook out, you spend all your time going srrrrrrr — that’s the sound of sucking the gook back in. Because you don’t know how to blow your nose.

I think that must be one of the most annoying and frustrating feelings – not knowing how to clean one’s nose when one has a cold. And everytime fall hits and Lil D get a runny nose and a cold, I am back to my prayer: Please God, let Lil D learn how to blow his nose. I’ve tried all methods of teaching him – verbal instruction, physical prompting, modeling behavior. I’ve shown him a thousand times, using myself and our other children as models. But unfortunately, he just doesn’t get it.

So to clean his nose, I resort to the massage method — massaging the sides of his nose to draw the snot out; the steam method — putting him in a hot shower with lots of steam to get his nose to run more and clean the snot as it flows out; and the sneeze method — lightly flicking some water up his nose to get him to sneeze it out. None of these methods are as effective as properly blowing the nose. But what else are we going to do?

These are some of the millions of challenges of raising Lil D – some of the most basic life skills that you wouldn’t even label as life skills because they are so basic are things he just does not know how to do. My other children learned how to blow their nose before they were two, and I kid you not – I did a special shukrani ki namaz (a special “prayer of thanks”) each time they first learned this important life skill, because I knew how important it was.

I’m waiting for the day I can do shukrani ki namaz when Lil D miraculously learns to blow his nose. I pray that it will, one day, out of the blue, just happen. Just like this past weekend when our new therapist instructed Lil D to “buckle up” in the car, and he buckled his own seatbelt. I never knew that Lil D knew how to do that. We’ve been buckling him in for years. And one fine day last week, he did by himself. And then he unbuckled himself when told to as well. It was a small miracle.

So please God, let Lil D learn how to blow his nose. He has as runny nose right now. Let the miracle happen.

Previous Post

September 30, 2011

The Trouble with Anwar al-Awlaki's Death

Next Post

October 6, 2011 Thanks Steve Jobs from an Autism Mom

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category A Global Voice for Autism Autism Awareness Month 2016 Autism Awareness Month 2017 Autism Interlude Hajj and Eid ul Adha Jenin Autism Project Ramadan Three Questions Uncategorized WISE Global Conference

Select a Month November 2018 October 2018 August 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who told God, "I am slow of speech and of tongue"?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Moses Samuel Isaiah Aaron