Observing my daughter teaches me a lot about myself. As I watched a recent struggle she had with wanting something that we couldn’t provide quickly or easily, this poem showed up in my mind. A great sadness overcame her life as we searched high and low for a stuffed animal that would be close enough to what her mind was picturing. No amount of reasoning or substitution was satisfactory as her mind had latched onto a specific image from somewhere. Eventually we found what her mind was stuck on and it immediately set her at ease. I don’t think the poem is finished but I’ve gone a couple days with nothing to add to it, so I’ll share what I’ve got.
The autistic mind
is a very strange place.
At least to the one
who must look in its face.
For the things that it holds,
there is little control.
And it helps not at all
to say, “Just let it go!”
The details that move in
and put down a root.
Don’t take too kindly
to be given the boot.
To take every thought captive
is not easy to do.
But without such a measure,
I’m left feeling blue.
© 2019 by Tom Lemler
In prayer,
Tom
Tom's Treasure 
Yes. My nephew was fixated on Thomas the Tank Engine when he was younger. The problem was that the TV’s color was slightly off and none of the toys were the “right” color. My SIL was desperate to the point of distraction. She was able to find a used engine that had faded and was the acceptable color. Happiness reigned. Luckily he has gotten better (a little) as he got older. He was thrilled to get to go to a concert but it took almost an hour to get him to come out of the bathroom because his hair wasn’t just so… I’m glad you could find the right one for Susan.
We learned early on that life was much easier for all of us if Susan picked out her own gifts. They have to look right, feel right, smell right, and probably a lot of other criteria that we would not even know to look for. 🙂