"Employment..............................."

I work in an Elementary Special-Education Autism unit. This year there are presently seven children in our room, a number that may change at any time during the nine months of this particular session. It is a job wherein I am continually restoring shoes to little feet that prefer a sensory connection with the floor and double-knotting shoelaces does little to restrict their desire to “take a walk on the wild side”. My days know many trips to the bathroom in the nurse’s station positioned just next door, two of the boys yet untrained in “toiletry etiquette”, the others needing merely a presence there to ensure “business is maintained”. In between lessons and activities, I consistently “shuffle the deck” in so far as their taking turns with an Ipad provided by one of their parents and two computers, only one of which is connected to the Internet. Silence within our spaces is seldom experienced for any length of time. Indeed, the other day while escorting the crew out to the playground, in travelling through hallways designated as “no noise zero level” areas, I commented on our surely causing some to wonder who's passing through, since at least three or four of our kids are almost always emitting some sort of audible laughter or displeasure, nothing, however, that might be taken for linguistics… These are individuals with identities of their own and, more importantly for us to remember, possessing a soul and a spirit just like any of us. While their communication skills may function better with the use of imagery, that doesn’t make it impossible them to achieve goals, to grow as they go. God’s heart knows His creation “from the inside out”; and what I want is to know His heart through His eyes, that this never becomes just a paycheck, but remains a privilege given, a door opened unto an old man…….