Few words describe a part non verbal exchange. Spirit exchange
The staff at Joseph's group home arranged a candy hunt. I helped him find all the wrapped up shapes (ghosts, spiders, pumpkins) with his name tags. All the kiddos joined at the dining room table to tally their caches.
In Joseph's cache were four small packages of pop rocks. When I saw them, the devil came out in me. Joseph can be the king of sensory "what the f*(#?" And since he is like my little toy, always experiencing things in a new light and with a ready audience of staff and peers, I opened up a package.
"Joseph, these are Pop Rocks.. open up your hand and Ill give you some"
out came the hand, he licked them up.
I expected the face of a lifetime and the need to shake them off. Instead, he kept opening and closing his mouth, listening to how they sounded mouth opened, mouth closed. he listened to them in his hand. He put his mouth up to my ear so I could hear them.
Joseph picked up another package and slid his pointing finger along some writing on the package.
"This" Joseph said (meaning please read this)
"Taste the explosion" I read
He repeated with inflection and had me open another package.
All four packages were experienced with glee and excitement, many times exclaiming "Taste the Explosion" and letting me experiencing the popping by having me listen.
I don't know who had more fun between him, myself, staff and peers. Truly Joseph shows us all a new way of being truly alive.
