In a Matter of Seconds (Journal #41)

It happened so quickly, and always does. In a matter of seconds, Sam can change the layout of any room. I don't say it out of frustration (although at times it is), I say it out of amazement. Tonight we returned from delivering Zach's wreaths to people who ordered them through his Cub Scouts, to find a message from grandma on the machine.



Sam had started playing with some of Zach's flash cards, just one pack of some math problems at the time. He was having fun looking at the numbers and was sitting at my feet when I called Brent's mom back. Sam was calm, not making noises, playing at my feet.



One of Sam's stim's (as our family calls them) or stimming activities (check out my blog friend Kristina's "friendly" wording and writing about it) is constant motion/movement/lining up of objects. Sam has to keep moving and organizing at all times. The only time he really sits still is when he is really hungry, or watching his latest TV fav which is Mickey Mouse Clubhouse right now. It is a matter of seconds how quickly he can take over a room with his organizing or lining up.



Hence, the few seconds at my feet with a deck of cards, turned our living room into a quilted array of flashcards. I no longer had walked into the kitchen while on the phone, to only get some water, to find this when I returned. Cards lined and organized all over the floor. He was arranging everything meticulously. Chicago, our dog, made the mistake of journeying through the maze and accidently shuffled some cards. Sam had several shrieks and yells to share with her over that little episode. While everything looked just thrown about. He was very carefully placing each card in a specific place, and knew when one was turned slightly wrong in his eyes.



In a matter of seconds things can change. Can change for the better. The past couple/three years would have found us dealing with anguish and screams at the thought of cleaning them up. He would not let us touch his arrangements for days on end, nor would he. They were his "shrines in a glass box" as we called them. But we could never think of cleaning them up. But tonight was different. After allowing Sam to walk around the outside of them several times, to lay on the floor to get a floor view of them, and after he sat beside them for 20 minutes just looking at them. I gently told him that we would clean them up together before bed. He didn't scream yell, or anything. I went into the office, came back out seconds (really a couple minutes) later, and he had sorted all 5 decks accordingly into 5 piles and wanted help to put them back in the boxes!!!! All in a matter of seconds. That's my boy:)



A Twist of Faith...

In a matter of seconds life can change. In a matter of seconds this past week, we had a high school classmate, and a friends brother-in-law die in seperate car accidents. Both young, both had children, one had a baby on the way. Life is a gift from God. What we do with it and how we live it can be taken in seconds. It frustrates me greatly how it always takes times like this to remind people about not waisting the time God gave us. How important our time is here on earth. Why can't people just be focussed all the time on what God wants us to do, and not wait for these dreaded moments to be reminded. We get caught up in our own wants, needs, sadness, desires, dissapointments so much that we forget that this life is not about us. It is about what we do for others, how we help others, how we reach out to others before it's too late, that makes all the difference in this life. Reaching out to help and do for others can change a persons life...in a matter of seconds.



It is God himself who has made us what we are and given us new lives from Christ Jesus; and long ages ago he planned that we should spend these lives in helping others. ~ Ephesians 2:10