Words for the Lemur

Before the haircut
Originally uploaded by CyberJazzDaddy.

We had parent teacher conferences this past week. The teacher Lemur has this year is so great. She doesn't candy coat his challenges, but she also has a heart determined that there is a way to guide him to the right track, and she's determined to find it.

She showed me on a standardized test that his cognitive skills are above the 90 percentile for kids his age. But he struggles in school. He'll hopefully be able to see a specialist this week that might be able to offer some help and insight. Provided his fever is truly gone and we don't have to reschedule again. I'm prayin' hard.

The teacher showed us a poem he wrote. The assignment was to write about your Special Peace Place. I thought it was beautiful. It also broke my heart. He wrote:

Hushhh. Hushhh.
I hear the wind blowing telling me to hushhh.
I feel the water on my hand.
I hear the butterfly's wings snipping like scissors. I see the fish swimming.
I see a door, but when I open it, it is not the other side of the door, it's a warm house.
I see a turtle walking by and a tree posed as if ti were holding it's hands up saying, "Hooray! Hooray!'
And a bird flying by.
And every time I go there, the autumn breeze is blowing against my face.
I see a squirrel climbing up a tree.
I just wish I could have a friend jump in my mind and sit with me.

Then, when I was going through boxes of mail to weed out what was important and what we could toss, I found a piece of notebook paper that my wife had written on. When I read what she had written, it turned out to be a poem for the Lemur. It must have been penned in a moment of reflection that couldn't be ignored, but then just tucked away.

After reading it, I couldn't help but second the motion.

She wrote:

He is my child. He is my Lemur.
Eyes bright and watching
Sparkling with amusement and mischief and
smiles that play and dance and pull you
into the fun you know will be there
if you just let go and come.

He is Lemur, who's mind is quick
to think past barriers and notice what
most people fail to guess at.