Day 274: Children’s Books at Half-Time

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Today marks the half-way point on this small journey. When it began, I supposed this would be the beginning of the way back. As in: if one travels in a circle, this would be the point that’d start the return arc.

But it’s not a circle. Nor is it a straight line. This journey (that we are, respectively, on) is a jagged, climbing, precipice that meets clouds and begs us to fly. It is the ocean that pulls us under and gives us fins to swim and gills to breathe by.

There is no back. There is only new, bested and bettered by the old. Like paper, folded over on itself, we hide maxims in our creases, camouflage our misspellings with crinkles, and grow by volumes.

To the green and wide-eyed chapters of us, I wrote a little book.

It is for a child.
It’s for the child in me.
It’s for my children before they grow.
You’ll have to find the child in you to appreciate it, I think.
It is for tomorrow, and the 273 days that follow…

 

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Marcus
and the
Maliciously Mighty
Mount Maxim

•

 

Marcus lives at the base of Mt. Maxim.
It’s so old a mountain, its pebbles are waxen.
It’s so fat a mountain, it must weigh a ton.
It’s so high a mountain, its tip’s in the sun.
Living so close to something so tall
makes Marcus believe he’s incredibly small.

“O, what the heck! O, what the hey!”
said a brave and inspired young Marcus one day,
“I think I can do this; I think I should try.
If I don’t I’ll be sorry, and always think, why?”
“Why didn’t I try it, and give it a go?
My heart said ‘just do it,’ my head just said ‘no.’”

Marcus dug out his boots, his rope, and canteen.
He was a mighty rock-climbing machine!
“I’m a little bit nervous and a teeny bit scared,
but I’ve done all I can to be smart and prepared.”
Marcus started his journey one step at a time;
when Maxim got steeper he started to climb.

The afternoon passed and Marcus grew tired,
he was starting to feel much less inspired.
He looked to the top, where he thought he would finish,
but hope that he could was greatly diminished.
Marcus turned to go home, back to the base;
maybe his gumption was way out of place.

“Hold on just a second, wait just a minute,
ask myself, ‘Self, is my heart really in it?’”
“What is the problem and how can I fix it?
I’ve come too far now to abandon and nix it.”
“This is the journey I’ve set myself on,
it doesn’t take money or beauty or brawn,
Just the commitment that I’ll see it through,
success of this sort is steadfast and true.”

Marcus rolled out a blanket and let himself rest;
when he woke, he was back at his rock-climbing best.
“Sleep was all that I needed, my doubt is no more,
I’m even more certain than I was before!”
Again, he ascended with a positive mind,
and no sooner was he in a new kind of bind.

The skies started pouring down buckets of rain.
What first was a trickle now was his bane.
The rocks became glossy and mossy and wet.
He took his next step, but his step was not set.
Marcus slid down the mountain and stopped with a THUD!
He was scratched and outmatched and covered in mud.

When his tears started falling, you couldn’t see where they were;
the rain on his cheek made it all one big blur.
Marcus looked down and buried his face;
he feared this adventure would be his disgrace.
He sat and he cried, feeling shame, feeling blue,
when all of a sudden came a startling break-through.

“I will not allow myself anymore crying;
I cannot forget, I’ve succeeded by trying!”
“Yesterday, I was not high on this hill;
I’ve gotten this far by the strength of my will.”
“The fate of tomorrow rests only with me;
to start again bravely, that is the key.”

The rain finished falling, sun finally came out.
He climbed for a spell, his head strong, his heart stout.
Until wouldn’t you know it, another tight spot.
At a rocky dead-end, Marcus found himself caught.
No surface to scale, no obvious trail,
he was blocked and stopped in a mountainous jail.

He looked to his left, he looked to his right,
there was no way, there was no path in sight.
Just a flat wall before him, no stairs to his side,
this mountain was starting to damage his pride.
Marcus got frustrated. He let a kick go,
but he only succeeded in stubbing his toe.

“I don’t want to go back, but I’m stuck in the middle;
what a super annoying and maddening riddle!”
He stared and seethed at Mighty Mt. Maxim;
when all of a sudden a new thought impacts him:
“At times to proceed, we must change direction;
if we’re stuck with bad luck, just make a correction.”

Marcus turned on his heel, took fourteen steps down,
raised his eyes to the skies and looked all around.
Ah hah! One more trail he had not seen before.
Maxim could stump him and stop him no more!
Marcus climbed so high up he passed through a cloud!
What Marcus saw next made him holler out loud…

“Whoopee! Yippee!” Marcus shouted with glee.
That is the top of Mt. Maxim I see!”
Freshly inspired and full of great might,
Marcus fearlessly climbed the whole mountain’s height.
“I cannot believe it, I’m so glad inside;
I have come to this summit because I just tried.”

Marcus sat for a while, high up in the air,
and was shocked by the number of mountains out there.
Everyplace that he looked he could see a new zenith,
some were quite small, but some were behemoth.
Marcus saw there’s more mountains to mount,
he’d have many adventures, too many to count.

“To climb some will be tough, and painful at best,
but it’s just another rough rock-climbing test.”
“The trick is to think when I feel defeated,
I’ve succeeded before and it can be repeated.”
“Find a solution instead of my wrath;
it’s a much more rewarding and worthwhile path.”

“There is never a problem that cannot be solved,
but persistence and patience must be involved.”
He looked all the way down, at how far he’d come,
and realized his journey was now where he’s from.

Marcus knew to take care,
no longer let doubt in,

for he had climbed out
from under a mountain.

•

 

 

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*it’s even better if you read it out loud,
with someone on your lap.