This is the first one I saw; growing right outside the Insurance Office I utilize, on a down-town sidewalk in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan. I was SO amused by it!
About three weeks later, I was in Coldwater, Michigan at a park and I saw this...and again, I was amused, but also in awe at the places I was seeing "life" growing and surviving around me.
These two pictures would pop into my head at the most random times. I knew there was truly a message in them - but wasn't quite sure how to put it into words. Then a few days ago, I had an interesting and very enjoyable encounter.
My "encounter" was with a little boy who was sitting at a table behind me at Bob Evan's Restaurant in Saginaw, Michigan. I could tell by the table talk that the family was getting ready to leave. I had noticed a baby with the family when I was seated. Always wanting to look at and talk about some one's baby to them, I turned my head to see if the baby was still awake.
Almost right in my face, was this little boy, who had gotten out of his seat and was "ready to go"! He had on a Cub Scout uniform. I started a conversation with him. I asked him about him being in Cub Scouts; he liked it but didn't like his "hat", he said, as he put it on his head! I looked at the dad, who said, "he doesn't like BEARS", and there was a bear on the hat. I told him that he looked very nice in his uniform and to always remember that girls like boys who wear uniforms. He gave me some response and I could tell by that time, that this boy was "special". I had my suspicions, but didn't know for sure what made him uniquely "him". I asked him his name; he picked up a crayon and wrote, "ALEX". I told him I liked that name; that it was a nice name. Then he picked up the crayon again and wrote "boy" under his name. "Yes", I said, "you are a boy. How old are you?" He went back and forth between seven and nine. Finally grandma told me he had just turned nine.
We kept talking; he whispered in my ear what his baby sister's name was. Then he asked me if I wanted to play tic-tack-toe with him? His parents and grandmother immediately thought he had crossed a line with me. "Leave her alone; no, she doesn't want to play t-t-t with you". I told him I would LOVE to play the game with him. He brought his paper and crayons over to my table. We played two games; he won them both!!! He was delighted, to say the least. (I think he would have gone home with me if he could have.)
His parents and grandma told him to come with them - that they were leaving. He whispered in my ear again that his mama had a little tiny baby that might be a boy. (Grandma and parents informed me that Mama was pregnant again.) "Oh", I said, "you are getting a new baby! How fun for you!"
Now he had to follow them out to the car. As he started to leave I hugged him and told him it had been so nice to meet him, and for him to have a very Merry Christmas. He hugged me in return and repeated the same things back to me. He started to follow his family, but once again, turned and came running back to me. Again, he hugged me TIGHT and said, "Have a very Merry Christmas". By this time, I was truly in love! I could have put him in my pocket and taken him home with me!!!
Suddenly I see that Grandma had stayed a little behind the rest of the family. Then she explained to me, "He is Autistic." (I think she felt she had to explain his behavior to me.) I told her I had suspected that. Then I told her my daughter was in her final year of school and doing her student teaching for her Special Education (Teaching) Degree. By this time, Mama had come back and joined our conversation. Grandma explained to her that she was telling me about Alex being Autistic. I quickly told Mama the same thing about my daughter that I had shared with the grandma.
I sensed a sigh of relief from both of them. I begin to think about Alex and have thought of him several times in the few days since I met him. I will probably never see him again. I thought of him in comparison to those plants I found growing in unlikely places.
For a few minutes, in a Bob Evan's Restaurant, I found beauty in an unusual place... beauty in a small boy named Alex. I will never forget the whispers in my ear or the tight hugs and well wishes he gave me. I hope he felt acceptance from me that night, AND I hope he felt he was "a beautiful person- just like he was... no frills added."
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