The Inner-Change on the Highway of Life

The sun is shining after countless cloudy days.  No hint of frost is seen..

Morning has broken early for me today.

I'm not sure what stirred me.  It might have been the late-night Pepsi I consumed after work (yes, my failure to turn my back on the caffeinated wonder has been well-documented) or the overwhelming guilt of not filling out Carissa's registration papers for the junior high.  Technically, they're not due until May 13th but her mommy-guilting skills are becoming so sharpened of late, I fear a car - or at least a pony - is in her future.

Alas, there I sat at the kitchen table, pen not so firmly gripped and glasses on (only because my eyes are tired - it has nothing to do with my advancing age!).  It was 6:44 am.

Who does that???  Who has their act together so early in the morning???

I am truly beginning to wonder who I am.....

My hopes of having some quiet time were squashed by the sound of Sean jumping out of his loft bed.

Crap.

Thumping and drawer slamming ensued.  His "morning" echoed throughout the house.

"Sean, your sisters are sleeping," I whisper-yell while making a PacMan action with my hand.

Multi-Grain Cheerios and milk with chocolate Ovaltine are consumed within seconds and we commence with our morning chit-chat.

For once it is not about the game Attack that they are playing at school.   Miracles do happen!!!!

Sean is in a contained classroom at his day school.  He only has 7 to 10 kids in his class at any given time and he's been with them for years.

However, due to his attending the junior high in the morning, he misses out on gym.  Since physical activity is so important for kids, the day school has accommodated him by placing him in another teacher's gym class in the afternoon.

Sean and I discussed this morning some issues he had the other day in gym class.

He rattled off a few names of his new classmates as he was speaking.  I was shocked....

Sean doesn't even know the names of his teachers at the junior high or of his fellow boy scouts that he's seen once a week since 5th grade.

Names - and faces - have always been simply one of those things that has been lost along the highway of Sean's brain.

He knows names.... 

Wow....

And then later, when I dropped him off at school, I said, "See ya" to him as he exited the van.

"See ya," he said back to me.

I stopped the world for a moment.

Was that a hint...albeit minuscule... but a hint of inflection in his voice?

Yes, I do believe it was.

A smile crossed my face as I pulled away from the school.

I drove off and turned down the thermostat on the car's heater.

It's warmer today.  A sure sign that change is in the air.

Don't you agree?