A beautiful day in November

The inattentive side of ADHD means that you can’t stay concentrated on a task, but you attention goes away, either to a dream world where you forget where you are, or a you start concentrating on everything else and leave the task behind. Henry often chooses to simply walk away and do something else.  But I can remember one time when he actually painted me and entire painting without walking away.

It was November and snow was starting to fall, Henry had just learned his new trick to staying focused, clicking his fingers. It was a smart method, allowing him to let go of what he was doing and click until he had something new to do. I was grateful to the mentor who taught it to him, because it made my crayons whole longer, since Henry wasn’t breaking them out of frustration of lack of concentration as often.

This day, we sat and painted, I told him about my day in school and even though I knew he wasn’t listening I, as always, found it comfortable to tell him. After a while he started clicking with his fingers and looking around him, yet he didn’t leave. After a while of clicking, his eyes returned with some focus to the paper before him and he continued coloring it, telling me it was a picture of us. He returned to clicking his fingers a few times, but never left the table, so after a while he gave me his first finished painting. It was as he had said a picture of us, Sarah and Henry, standing on the grass with the sun shining brightly above. And in a light blue where the snowflakes falling.

After that he never finished a painting, but I love the ones he gives me anyway. But that one, from the day in November, still hangs above my bed to remind me that anything is possible as long as you believe in it.