The Ground Beneath Our Feet

Gingerly I walk out
of my little boy shoes
And onto the cemented
ground,
rough, crooked
And oh how I love it
I look around
with eyes wide,
searching
questioning
What's this world like?
And then something
way up there
hovers in formation
singing, flying
and like me,
flapping!
Mama tells me they're
birds in the sky
Oh and the sky!
bluest of blue
and wispiest whites
And wait till
dusk comes,
where way up there
turns lavender
red
Oh how I love
sunsets instead
And then I tread
on my little bare
feet onto our koi pond
freshly cleaned
Of course it's not
enough for me
to stare at the fish
or to just look at the water
I immerse
my little boy hands
and splish and splash
Still it's not enough
I need to feel it,
My whole body needs
it, the calmness
it brings, soothing
water, I go in
And then I sing!
Oh how I sing,
And don't even ask
when I'm on the
belt swing
I put my belly over it
arms hanging
then I swish
to and fro
As high as I
can go!
Then I get bored, so
I twist round and round
till it's tight
then I let go
with all my might
And it's round and round
again, spinning
spinning
And me laughing, laughing!
This is my world,
come join me,
See how fun
how beautiful it must be
For others may
call it sensory dysfunction
I call it feeling the earth
the wind, the water
for what it is
Some call it weirdness
I call it the natural order of things
Most call it unusual
But I call it
just breathing the air
that I breathe
feeling the ground
beneath our feet
I call it living our
lives as it should be.
fully....


I've long wanted to write about my boys' unique way of experiencing the world. By unique, yes, I do mean their sensory processing difficulties and challenges. Whenever Morgan takes off his crocs to play in our garage, I can see the satisfaction he feels as he treads over the roughness of the cement, walks over the big stones, and Garret too, as he just sits and sometimes even lays down on the ground. If there is one word that could describe my boys' countenance when they are experiencing the world in their own way, it would be this: peace.

Come to think of it, in our world full of immediate gratification gadgets, technology and everything automatic, we fail to really experience life as it is. The presence of technology more often than not seems to override our natural ability to learn things the experiential way as we used to. This is why every time I see my boys doing what they do, I am fascinated, awed and feel a certain sense of nostalgia. My boys remind me what life is really all about. The remind me never to let go of things that matter. They tell me everyday to always, always live life as it is supposed to be lived-- fully.