of child development, and physics

Max, and Quantum Leaps

child development is not a continuous linear progression,

rather a child abruptly shifts from one level to another,

accumulated experience shifts around inside

until disparate pieces fit together, they coalesce,

as if pieces of a jigsaw puzzle organize themselves,

one moment a struggling reader

clicks into a new reality

and letters seamlessly become words,

and words, faster and faster build meaning,

our grandson, Max, has a mind, a soul,

that watches and listens, that seeks and grasps to know,

being two, going on three, he knows enough, and wants enough,

to burden him with power he can’t yet contain,

so his parents have to be grounding

as his electrical energies flash

and skitter his want and will from here to there,

in physics, around the nucleus are concentric shells

within which electrons whirl around and around,

till, when energy is introduced, an electron can jump

to the next outlying shell, a quantum leap,

that’s what Max is doing, and all children at their best,

each makes quantum leap after quantum leap,

the circle of themselves jumps outward,

and each leap leaves them in a new place,

it takes time and care to integrate the self within

with the new levels to which understanding has leapt,

and within which it takes time to make a home.

by Henry H. Walker

October 2, ‘15