Rozey Thorn Trees

My daughter wakes me from my nap with screaming from her bedroom: "Scary! Scary!"  I rush in. "What's wrong!"  "I hear noises!" she says.  I ask, "What noises?"  She makes deep, heaving, guttural sounds. I lie down next to her and quietly shush her, then listen intently for what I suspect to be the usual plumbing sounds from our three-story condo building, or maybe traffic or animal sounds from outside her window.  I hear many sounds, but it's not until she repeats her asthmatic, Darth Vader-like tones that I realize that she is imitating me snoring. I am the one who was making the scary breathing noises.  "You were making the noises, Daddy?"  "Yes, I was snoring."  "Haha, you're silly, Daddy. Please don't make those noises again."  "Ok, honey. I won't. Sweet dreams."  So now I'm wondering if Uncle Henry is to blame for Dorothy's phobia of lions, tigers, and b

A silent, undisturbed caterpillar Suspended from a branch Hangs motionless Surrounded by the busyness of nature Forgotten Waiting, waiting, waiting For the walls of solitude To fall away O, my Soul, there you hang Alone, shut out from the world Growing, maturing, changing from old habits Till the chains fall off that hold you in place Till the day you soar high and beautiful by Clary Walker II

"If you don't come right now, I will go home and eat your cheesecake!" I said after church desperately, tiredly, hungrily, ashamedly, but, most important, successfully.

This is a favorite documentary of mine about the brilliant British autistic savant Daniel Tammet. It closely reflects the events of his autobiography Born on a Blue Day .