This morning and day feel surreal. They just do. Yesterday, I worked a baseball game and left it as hell unfolded blocks away. Lives were lost and others were unbelievably altered. People survived, but they will never live the life they once did the same way again.

Yet this morning, I woke up, and I approached a Tuesday like so many before it. Today we have occupational therapy in the morning and ABA at home in the afternoon. 

J and his peers showed me wonders, this morning. Three little boys, all struggling with different things yet all so deservedly ignorant of what happened in Boston yesterday. Three little boys, all so delighted to be in the presence of one another. For the sake of this entry, I’ll call them H and S, for I would never want their parents to feel their privacy invaded, even if my audience is small.

S is a charming little man, quite dapper in how he handles himself. He seems to be a lot like J in that they both have sweet, silly natures. H is a bundle of energy, exploding onto the scene with an exuberant shriek that I cannot help but to translate as “OH MY GOD YOU GUYS ARE HERE I AM SO HAPPY I CANNOT EVEN CONTAIN IT!”. I swear he just happens to be working in caps lock and, given that I do not have to deal with it for multiple hours a day, I find it hilarious and endearing. The three are close enough in age and skills that they fall in step with one another and work together despite being with individual therapists. They are each others best teachers and best motivators.

Yesterday changed nothing for them. J and S got together working in the back with one another and H joined them later. They filled the entire place with a sense of energy, warmth and excitement. Yes, they are a handful but today there was no therapy better on this earth than the warm, innocent and free laughter of three amazing little boys.

Thank you J, H and S. Thanks for reminding me, and hopefully everyone who saw you all today, what’s really important.