One Single Impression: Joie de Vivre

"For  you,"
He says.

He is "Five,"
The special ed. kid
Who learned this summer
To count by fives

And does so
With the joy
Most of us save for the moment
We eat our favorite ice cream.

For me:
A maple leaf
Turning red

Weeks before I'd expect it to.

But here we are on the sidewalk
Because some kid
Tried to set the school on fire
For the second day in a row

And there's just nothing to do
Out here right now.

"Look at it under a microscope.
"You see every cell. It is alive,"
He tells me.

"Have you done that?"

"No," he says.
"I don't need to.
"My teacher told me."

Oh.
"Thank you. It is beautiful,"
I smile.

"I know."
And the last word:

"I gave it to you."

It is alive.

So it went last week. A developmentally disabled child who learned to count by fives this summer introduced himself to me by making a gift to me of a maple leaf. The trust and confidence of this child stole my heart--as it does every day with my own students. Here is the conversation over the leaf, though. Here is the gift of life. There are days I walk or sit in silence and ponder the significance of the gift. A beautiful thing.

One Single Impression