Pearls

What I love about the idea of pearls are that they are a completely unexpected treasure when you find them.  Hidden inside a rather gly object f a clam, you find something so beautiful.  Now you know there is the possiblity of finding one, but no gaurtentees.  And you definately don't know if you are going to find a particularly beautiful one.

Shortly after Pyrope started walking, I started him in a gymnastics class at our local rec center.  I really liked the instructor.  She was great.  She was great when Pyrope had some difficulty transitioning to the classes that are without parents.  She was great when I asked her if I could sign up Obsidian for the baby class even though he couldn't walk, and that is the prerequisite for the class.  He was in the class for 6 months before he could walk.  I actually only signed him up for one legitimate session of that class because he started walking between week 1 and 2 of the one session, and there was only one full session before he aged out to the 2 year old class.  Obsidian really really wanted to go up to the class without parents and that got to do a craft at the end. This is now the 2nd or 3rd session of the "big kids" (meaning parents don't stay) class.  He missed the first week due to a doctor's appointment.  The second week, a little girl looked at him and said "He can't be in our class, he is just a baby."  The teacher matter-of-factly said "He is just as old as you are, he is just small.  He is part of the class."  The little girl then said "Here is an empty carpet, sit next to me."  in a tone that sounded completely accepting of Obsidian.  So many people don't look past Obsidian's size, or his gross motor delays.  This teacher recognizes his gross motor delays (he can't do what the rest of the kids can do a lot of the time, she just changes the activity for him, helps him, or has another child help him) but also recognizes that socially and cognitively, this is where he belongs.

A pearl.