Conversation With a Wild Feline

...my latest, crazy dream involved cheering my son on as he raced in a go- cart competition. Odd thing was that his vehicle was a big, fat tootsie roll with a seat carved out. "Go," I said. "People will look at you funny and may not want to be on your team. But you will win, son, and the others will be in complete awe!" What led me to this dream was a long-ago, profoundly-esoteric encounter with a tootsie roll that left me feeling completely powerless.

My son, Justin (age 7) is severely allergic to several food groups and he has autism. That's how I ended up in the book business - http://www.susandelaine.com/ . In first grade, a substitute teacher gave him a miniature tootsie roll for doing a good job in class. He was 6 years old. He's a trusting kid. And you have guessed by now that he ate it. Just one. And he became deathly ill. By the time I arrived at the school, he had already had two full doses of Benadryl and was totally disrobed, shivering, itching, moaning and saved the vomitting for the car.....

...no, I didn't sue the school. Rather, I referred back to a scenario that took place a few centuries ago in my family: My great, great grandmother walked out the back door of her village in the mountains of South Korea, probably fixing to go bury some kimchee. Anyway, as she exited, she found herself face-to-face with a very large, very wild, and very hungry feline. And very mad, according to my mom. As the cat zeroed in on dinner, my great, great grandmother decided not to run and scream, not to fight and not even to become fearful. Instead, she gathered up her big skirt, squatted down near the beast and began to speak to it. "Why are you here? You don't belong. Go back to the forest where it's beautiful and serene. Here, you will only find chaos and madness."

Please do not try this, unless you are a highly-trained yogi or animal zen master. What I learned from this story was that we do posess a lot more power than we may feel comfortable facing. We are all connected and we can easily command better circumstances and future outcomes. So we have decided to set our sights on Justin's success and wellness, rather than have prolonged fits over cats and tootsie rolls. What a superior space in which to exist. ..and the very large, hungry, wild and mad feline did walk away.