Meeting With Wiggles

A mostly neutral description of negotiating access during a gathering of two or more people.
By Jonathan Paradox.

Welcome. Warm hug or other display of affection. We smile.
Wiggles of joy.
Checking in.

More wiggles of joy for a moment before moving on to say what we need or want with our time together.

We mention our pronouns. We negotiate the space and time of the coming minutes together. We plan when it will end. We plan some of the topics.
We plan a break.
We also negotiate stuff like if it’s okay to eat together, and interruptions for bio breaks.
And we negotiate some silly stuff like if it’s okay to put on costumes or dance during our time together.

We might even dream of planning to close our eyes for five minutes and hum together or make the noises of chirping birds.

We take a moment to breathe.

Then we summarize what we’ve negotiated.
This is what you need or want.
This is what I need or want.
This is what we need or want.

We also allow interruptions for new access needs to arise.

And sometimes we just don’t have the capacity to have the meeting. And so we reschedule.

And if we do keep going we feel into our negotiations and stories and the rhythm of being in this particular time and space with these particular people, places, and circumstances.

And then, sometimes we remember or realize a new need.
Someone asks for help. 
Or someone notices someone else is being left behind and they make an access hold.
More negotiation between the person who has an access need and the group as a whole.
Ah. Ha.

The gathering moves on.

More things happen. And more things. And more.
Then we start to come to a close. 

Some more questions are asked. We negotiate future meetings. We reflect on our time together. We say goodbye.

Goodbye.