Out of My Mind

The book I am currently reading is called "Out of My Mind." It isn't very often that I read a book that isn't a christian title (mainly because I work in a christian bookstore :-). But this one was brought to my attention by a sweet lady who owns a children's bookstore here in town. It is filed under juvenile fiction, which is just perfect for my reading level :-)
While we are wondering around this great little bookstore, I began chatting with the owner. We talked for a while and then she says," let me read you something" and this is what she read to me....

Words
I'm surrounded by thousands of words. Maybe millions.

Cathedral, Mayonnaise, Pomegranate.
Mississippi. Neapolitan. Hippopotamus.
Silky. Terrifying. Iridescent.
Tickle. Sneeze. Wish. Worry.

Words have always swirled around me like snowflakes-each one delicate and different,each one melting untouched in my hands.
Deep within me, words pile up in huge drifts. Mountains of phrases and sentences and connected ideas. Clever expressions. Jokes. Love songs.
From the time I was really little-maybe just a few months old-words were like sweet, liquid gifts, and I drank them like lemonade. I could almost taste them. They made my jumbled thoughts and feelings have substance. My parents have always blanketed me with conversation. They chattered and babbled. They verbalized and vocalized. My father sang to me. My mother whispered strength into my ear.
Every word my parents ever spoke to me or about me I absorbed and kept and remembered. All of them.
I have no idea how I untangled the complicated process of words and thought, but it happened quickly and naturally. By the time I was two, all my memories hadwords, and all my words had meanings.
But only in my head.
I have never spoken one single word. I am almost eleven years old.

_______

Funny how I am surrounded by books constantly. I listen to sermons, read blogs, see tweets and facebook that constantly talk about books and authors. But God set that day up perfectly for me to walk into that bookstore and have that conversation with the owner. Since that day God has put a number of things in my path that deal with children with special needs. I am not sure what He is doing with all of this, but I don't believe in coincidences. Maybe He is calling me out, or maybe He is just softening my heart. Because I feel like my heart has been hardened my misunderstanding of families and children with special needs. Yesterday we were at the doctors office and there was a little boy with down syndrome. I felt myself smile at him differently than before. With more understanding.

Anyway.....all of that to say. "Out of My Mind" is a book worth reading. I refused to pay shelf price so I borrowed mine from the library :-) (Just don't tell the sweet little lady who read Ch.1 to me in her book store.)

That little children's song: He's still working on me....to make me what I ought to be...... is running through my head. God is so good and I am so thankful that He's isn't finished with me yet.


~LL