A short story from Elijah's Blog: My 3 Wishes

Part 1!:
To Follow a Rainbow

                 One day, a beautiful rainbow appeared in the sky. 

                 To some it was pretty clear, to others, like most rainbows, it was very faint. Many people simply didn't notice the rainbow, while some others stopped and took pictures of it with their smart-phones . . .  

                  But, out of all the people in the world, there were only two men who noticed that there was something very different about this rainbow.....something very special about it. They each saw a golden light at one end.

                 One man was a young businessman stuck in traffic on the way home from work.

                 The other was the young owner of a donut shop and bakery at the end of a strip-mall.

                  The young business man, frustrated with traffic, took a detour. He just cut out from work early and he was trying to get home fast.  He wanted to get home to his apartment so that he could get started catching up on his Netflix shows....

But he noticed the rainbow, and even thought the golden light was . . . unusual . . . but he wasn't very interested in it. Suddenly he realized that, while he was lost in thought, he had taken a wrong turn after the detour. He tried to follow the signs back to the main toll-way . . .irritating the heck our of him, this detour led to another, which led to another . . .

     The other man to notice was a donut baker. He saw the rainbow and marveled at it. It was beautiful. He had never seen one like it before . . . and there was this sublime light at the end of it, like a morning sun . .. even though it was late in the day, the sun was still up and in the opposite end of the sky. So he saw this light as being very peculiar.  Looks just like a sunrise . . . He decided that any work he had to do could wait till early the next morning, and he put up his "closed sign", took off his apron, folded it, made a sign of the cross, and set out to see if he could see what was at the rainbow's end.

          

Part 2:

At the Rainbow's End

At the Rainbow's end . . .                 

                  The business man pulled over, to the shoulder of the road, and banged on the top of his steering wheel with both hands clenched.  Shrugging his shoulders, he wrinkled his face up, clenched the wheel, and and finally exhaled with loud sigh. 

"Stupid GPS!!! . . . why the hell don't you ever update!?! . . . I bought the extra year plan . . . should just use my damn iphone !. . . what a waste!..." and he punched the Home icon 4 or 5 times while the GPS politely informed him, "RECALCULATING" . . . and he sighed, again.

                The donut baker followed the rainbow to it's end. When he finally got there, he saw the end hanging over the beach. He marveled. It's other end appeared to go out over the ocean . . .the other end--he thought--seems to have . . well . . . it seems to have no end!

                He pulled over to the shoulder, a bit ahead  of another man who was still in his own car.  He looked out at the beach and the ocean, and again at the beautiful rainbow, and at the rainbow's end on the beach. And he marveled.

                 The donut baker had never seen anything like it, it was like a morning sunrise with no sun, no center! But the light radiated out and made everything around it even more beautiful, shinier some how! He wished he had someone to share this with!

                 Then he remembered.. when I drove up there was a guy parked in his car . .The other car!

                 He ran about 30 yards back to the other car, now noticing the man inside. The man wasn't looking at the rainbow, but, still, the donut man thought--he must be here like I'm hear, for the rainbow!

 ***

                 The business man stared angrily at his GPS. But, suddenly, he heard a tapping at his window!
               "gahhhuhhhahhh!!!, what??? Whhaa--what???!!!"
  --The young business man blurted out!

                The donut man looked through the closed window and just smiled as he waved at the businessman inside.

                 The business man, thought he looked friendly enough . . .and he was pointing at something. . .towards his own car, he supposed.  Then he peered at the donut man's car. It was a golden Honda civic, with an ulcerated paint job, a missing "H", and a bumper sticker that said "I break for donuts".  

 "Great," the business man thought, "he needs help changing his tire or something . . . damnit"   The businessman rolled down his window and braced himself to ask what was wrong... but as the window got halfway open, he heard  "--ainbow!!!  Do you see it too??!!"

                Shocked by the the donut man's excitement, the business suddenly and urgently feared for his life! He was completely overwhelmed by the donut man's enthusiasm.

               This guy's cazy!...He's freaking out about ...something!...I hope he doesn't start crying, or telling me that God loves me or something!

   He recoiled in his seat, and desperately pushed the button for the window to go back up.
               That's when he saw it.

                --IT!---

                "It" was a freak'n' bucket, filled with what looked to be gold-bars. No, not a "bucket", a barrel....like a Wal-Mart --$5 dollar---DvD--sized barrel!!! Huge! But instead of  being filled with Hitch, Bandidas, and crummy Steven Segal, and Schwarzenegger movies, it was filled and overflowing with . . .  bars of gold!

               The business man saw nothing else. Only the gold. To him, the rainbow disappeared, as did the beautiful beach it was on, and for a moment even the donut man standing right in front of him disappeared!  And for that moment, it was just the young businessman and the gold--his gold--forever.

              Then, abruptly, the donut man interrupted this moment of ecstasy. 

              "The rainbow, did you follow it??? I saw it too!!! Isn't this awesome!!!" the donut man shouted while an unyielding smile lit across his face, from ear to ear! He waited, eyes wide with anticipation, for the businessman to say something . . .

              The business man just sat there, in his car, still thinking. . . .
    
      "Let's go! Let's go see what's at the end . . .c'mon!!!.," the donut man gestured toward the beach, eager to share the experience. "I've never seen anything like it! . . . Just that 'morning light', a beautiful, bright---no---GOLDEN light  . . . how would you describe it??? "

 He turned back to face the beach again, and marveled. "I mean . . . wow!!"


             Narrowing his eyes, the businessman looked at the the donut man, but he looked at him kind of . . . sideways. He thought,  He doesn't see it? I don't see what he's talking about, but he obviously doesn't see the GOLD bars!

            Still stunned and ill-composed, the business man mechanically exited his car as the the donut man continued to gesture toward the rainbow's end .. . still like a crazy man (like a maniac--the business man thought).

            "Let's go down and see!" and before the business man could reply, not that he had anything to say, the donut man raced down, hopping and stumbling gracefully down the road side to the sandy soft beach below.

            The business man grunted, "oh no you don't!" and set off for the short stairway leading down to the beach, but halfway there, he remembered to hit his car remote to lock up his BMW. The car alarm replied with a comforting, "Bwoop, Bwoop". And the business man set off again for his gold.

            The donut man reached the beach. Then he stumbled to a stop, doubled over, posted his hands on his knees and began to pant and catch his breath.

            The business man didn't stop, he ran past the donut man and jumped onto the shiny, gleaming, enormous barrel of gol----

SAND! ......
.....................a pile of light. tan. sand.

             Holding two fist-fulls of sand, the business man said "what? SAND???, where's the freak'n gold!?!?!"

             And suddenly the donut man looked up and said, "gone??? Where did the rainbow go? And what happened to the beautiful LIGHT????"

             Both men dismayed as they stood there . . .

           The donut man had stopped working early and had come all this way....and now, it looked like it was for nothing, it was all just a mirage . . .but the beach was still nice, he thought .. . .

           The business man thought, Was I crazy? Did I hallucinate it all??? There must be more than this . . . I can't believe what a crummy day i'm having; traffic, a maniac, and now this! . . .
 
            Shaking their heads--each's own head--neither had more than one head, and they didn't share heads (FYI !)---and they looked around the beach, the ocean, the bluff, up at the road, to their cars  --each's car---they didn't have more than one car, and they didn't share cars.(fyi!) . . .and then finally they turned to each other, when. .  .

             ---Poof---

A Leprechaun appeared!

                  Happy and charming . . . and not at all evil- looking! He looked a lot like the Lucky Charms Leprechaun! (which makes sense, since he does commercial modeling on the side . . . he even once did a thing for Maxim, but that's in the past, we don't need to talk about that now . . .or later!)


            The business man suddenly realized what was going on. It all made sense. The rainbow, the gold . . . the Leprechaun . . . this means something BIG, BIGGER THAN THE GOLD . . .this meant...

3 WISHES!!!

Like this, but filled with GOLD!!!

Part 3

Meet Phil  

            The donut man saw the Leprechaun and greeted him,
"uh. Hi." And he eekeed out a cringing smile and a quick half wave. Seemed like the thing to do.

             The business man's eyes got wide, and he just gazed at the Leprechaun!

            Then the Leprechaun said:
"Hello my name's Phil, and I am a Leprechaun"

            The donut man looked at Phil's shoes and said "nice buckles"

Phil said "thank you!".

          Then Phil the Leprechaun continued: " I am here to grant you 3 wishes."

          "But first some ground rules . . . Anything you want, almost anything, and you have to make all 3 wishes right now. . . but no wishing for more wishes,or for wisdom--that gets old--, no wishing for more Leprechauns....and no wishing to be God! Oh yeah, and no wishing for that Firefly TV series to be re-started, we all know that's not gonna happen . .. okay!!! Let's get down to the 3 wishes!"

And Phil looked expectantly at both of them.

          The young business man spoke up quickly: "Well I was here first, so obviously---YOU MUST BE TALKING TO ME . . .so I'm the one who gets the 3 WISH---" Then Phil cut him off.

"You both do . . you both get 3 wishes each."

"Oh." responded the businessman . . . feeling like a. . . ."okay then."

          The donut man still a little bewildered by the disappearance of the rainbow said "where's the light, what happened to the light, and the rainbow and. . ."

          Phil then retorted a little sternly : "uh, hey, donut man! Can we refocus a little here . . .eye's on me.. . .Good." then he continued . . "Okay, back to the 3 wishes! Since we both have places to be, I'll start with you, businessman . . .while donut boy here gets his act together!"

           The business man thought for a moment . . . okay . . . . he said that these were rules, he never said that the wasn't capable of granting more than 3 wishes, he just said we couldn't ask . . .he quickly schemed and came up with an idea . . . he turned his back to the Leprechaun and spoke with the donut man *in private*.

"Psssst....hey! Donut guy! come here! . . ."

And the donut man came closer  so he could hear what the businessman was whispering  . ..

He could hear him now . ."Okay," said the businessman "we'll catch him!"

"Catch him??? who??? The LEPRECHAUN!?!?!" the donut man  almost hollered as he tried to wrap his mind around the business man's plot.

"Ssshhhhh, keep it down! . .  yes-- the Leprechaun! I know how we can get more wishes! I'll google 'water-boarding'...and we'll--- "

"No way!" reflexively replied the donut man "We can't!!!"

          The business man, confused, glared at the donut man, "of course we can! We've got water, we've got the ocean, there are two of us, you can hold him while I ----"

"No, I'm not water-boarding a Leprechaun!!!!"

"Fine" sighed the businessman.

Phil, looked at them and gleefully said " Ahem . . uhh, are you two done talking over there??? . . ."

          Like two kids caught talking in detention they both snapped straight and returned their attention to Phil, as they simultaneously, and guiltily answered "YES."

          Phil the Leprechaun: "Okay business man! you're up! . . And you only have 1 minute left to make your choices . . you just used up two minutes with your . . .whispering"

          The businessman quickly thought, and his mind raced. . ..Oh crap, one minute! Do I get a phone-a-friend??? No that's ridiculous! This is a Leprechaun not "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire ". . . think stupid! think!!! Ok wealth, that's obvious, a long life to enjoy it, and a way to keep it all! . . .

The business man stepped forward and was about to answer when . . .

Phil the Leprechaun said, "Okay, you got it!"

"Got what???  I haven't said anything yet" the business man gawked, a bit stifled. 

Phil: "I already know the 3 wishes . . . Money, long life, and a way to make sure you keep everything you want"

Business man: "you read my mind???"

Phil playfully responded "Yep! And let me tell you, it was a 'short-read' !" and he smiled.

          What a jerk......... the business  man thought . . .then he thought oh no he reads minds!!! Don't think that, think nothing! Then he stood almost comatose for the next couple of minutes as he tried to un-think everything he had just thought. It was gonna take a little time for him to come back to us.

          Phil turned to the donut man....who stood there smiling . . . 

               Phil, surprised by the donut man's sudden succinctness, exclaimed:"Wow, you're already done! Okay donut man, you got your 3 wishes . . .and that last one, well that was very sweet of you! And the second one was awesome! Never heard that one before!"

          The donut man turned to the business man and shrugged . . ."guess he read my mind". 

             "Well, I guess this is goodbye! Take care, and remember to spay and neuter your pets . . ." Phil straightened his little leprechaun hat and . . .

The business man quickly spoke up . . ."hey wait!  Wait!!!"

"Yes?"

The businessman, as politely as he could muster, asked "When do we get our wishes? When do I get what I asked for?"

           Phil said "I know you wanted yours very soon, you'll begin to get yours very, very soon!" then he turned to the donut man and said "Yours will come in due time!"

This made the donut man very happy and he smiled.

          Phil said "Well, I'll be taking my leave . . ." then he gave a scolding look to the businessman, "it wouldn't have worked, you know?  I mean I can hold my breath for a long, loooooonnnngggg time!"

The businessman cringed.

And just as suddenly as he appeared  . . .

--Poof--

Phil was gone.

 

Part 4

A Tale of Two Wishers

     So after Phil so unceremoniously "poofed", the two men stood there in deep thought and contemplation until they once again became aware of one another. Awkwardly.

     "*ahem*," the donut man spoke up first . . . "Well . . . 

aren't you excited?!? I mean I am! This is gonna be awesome, I can't wait for this wish stuff to start kicking-in!"

The businessman looked at the donut man and thought, I'm so glad I won't need to be sharing space with THIS ONE anymore . . . but he actually said "uhhh, yeah sure . . . I mean I wonder when it will 'work'. . . neither of us looks different. What did you wish for?"

       The donut  man just smiled and said "I'm not gonna say, then it won't come true!"

       The businessman struggled to remember if the Leprechaun had mentioned that " really?" he asked.

        The donut man chuckled, "Well really I don't know, but it will be more fun if you find out, if We find out as we go!"

         Oh no! . . . The businessman's mind raced . . . what if this idiot wished we would be bff's or something, or that we would live together! Can his wishes override my wishes?!?!

         Noticing the perplexed look on the businessman's face, the donut man offered, "You know!?! I mean we can keep tabs on Facebook . . ."

         Suddenly relieved beyond all measure, the business man burst forth, "Facebook! . . . uh yeah, sure, of course, yeah we'll be 'friends' on Facebook . . ."   

         The donut man immediately whipped out his phone to the businessman's dismay . . . "so . . ."   

          "You mean now?, " the businessman frowned.

           The donut man gestured with open arms " of course! . .. . so.....what's you're name?"

            "okay . . . Business Man..."

             The donut man scrolled down through all the Facebook listings . . .and requested clarification, "okay would that be Business Man in Greenbay Wisconsin, or A. Business Man from Malibu California? It's hard to tell from the profile pics, they're too small."

               "Uhhh???" he looked around the beach and back at the donut man "California?, don't you think?"

               "I was pretty sure, but I thought I sensed a little bit of a Midwestern inferiority complex, so I thought maybe you grew up there....okay, just sent the request . . .once you accept . . ."

                 The businessman now pulled out his Samsung Galaxy, found his fb page and accepted the request from "The D Man" from San Bernadino . .. Just as I thought  . . . he has a goofy profile pic of him in front of his donut shop, and he's making the Heisman Trophy pose . .while holding and eclair,.. .good lord..."

Part 4:

We Go Our Separate Ways

                They both parted on the beach that day . . . to be honest, they were both kind of sad . . . the business man was a little distraught because he had no intention of keeping in touch with the donut man, while the donut man was sad because he could tell it might be a long time before he saw the business man again . . .

                They had both shared something that only they would believe, and it was over now.

                  

                So, as the years rolled on . . .

                The business man started to see his wishes unfold.  On his way home from the beach, and the rainbow, and the Leprechaun--he got cut off by a crazy truck driver. 

You creep, you almost ran me off the road!!! He thought, loudly.

So when he saw the "how's my driving" number and sticker on the back of the truck, he called and reported him, and called the police--he couldn't just forgive and forget this guy!

Turns out, the man driving the truck had stolen it, was on the run, and the FBI had a million dollar reward out for him!

Suddenly our little business man wasn't just another working stiff, he was a millionaire!

               But after a few months he thought to himself....this is nice, I mean I live in a mansion (he had moved to Texas--you get more house there) . . . got a pool....got a nice car . . . only work part-time .  . .but still I feel like I'm not really RICH. . . .

                So he thought, maybe I have to do something, invest or something, and then I'll be super rich.  So he looked for new products and inventions online and decided he would pick one and invest in it.  He saw one product that looked promising, it was already selling well and didn't even have a commercial for it yet.

               They were like a cross between a blanket, a bath robe, and what Gandalf wore in Lord of the Rings . . . he thought they looked ridiculous . . . but they were already selling like hotcakes. . . so he thought . . .Okay, I'll give these "Snugies" a chance.... 

      One year later he was living on an island--his island--in the Caribbean, drinking Mojito's  on the beach while Kate Upton, his trophy---I mean WIFE. . . . while she made sand castles and looked pretty. . .

      He had 8 mansions in different parts of the world by this point--he also invested in "The Pocket Hose"-- He also had a yacht, and a personal Jet.  He got backstage passes to every show he ever went to. Had his own personal trainer, chef, life coach (for coaching his life), butlers, maids, and an assistant to hold his phone for him when he talked (he was the guy who bullied him in junior high)--he called him "Bluetooth".

    The business man was pretty content. Things were easy, and he was just coasting. He almost never thought about the donut man, or that day on the beach. 

     Life was good, he was coasting . . . until . . . 

      One day his troph....his WIFE, Kate Upton left. She realized how he didn't really love her . . .  which he made clear in the pre-nups, but she thought he would a least be nice....but she realized he didn't respect her at all. So she packed up her things, and left with Bluetooth, who was also fed up . . . and headed back to California.

     Hurt by the split, the businessman decided he would never get married again . .  .and that the only "friends" he would allow on his island were people he paid to come to his parties, his personal staff, and Oprah and Dr Phil. . . for personal support.

    One day after all of his "friends" left on a boat, after a party-filled weekend . .  he walked out to the beach and looked at the horizon . . .it seemed to go on forever.  He realized for the first time in his life---that he was unhappy, and not only unhappy--he was alone.

    He thought about that day with the Leprechaun, the rainbow, and the donut man . . . and thought...

is this it ?. . . is this going to be how I spend my long life? Rich, but unhappy and entirely alone?

              Then, suddenly he was awoken by a text on his phone. He yelled "Hey Bluetooth--get over here!" then he remembered how his assistant was gone . . . he would have to hold the phone himself . . . how undignified!

             So he looked at his phone and saw that it was a message via facebook, from the D-Man in San Bernardino.  It said:

            "Hey their business! I'm going to be visiting a friend in Dallas? Do you still live in Texas? We could catch up!!!"

             The businessman really wasn't too thrilled by this idea. He didn't answer for about a day. Then, out of sheer curiosity and boredom, he looked at the donut man's timeline.

           Ok . . . he kept his donut shop, opened up one more 15 minutes away . .. that one failed, back down to one shop again . . . his mother died a few years ago .. . he got married to a lady he met on the bus, while his car was in the shop . . .he has 3 kids now . . . his father just died this year. . .he looked at his profile pictures . . .

"Wow" he thought aloud. "He looks so . . . happy! . ..what's the deal . . . I mean, I can't tell what his wishes were . . . but he looks so darn happy!"

 Over the next few weeks this question plagued the business man. . ."what did that idiot wish for!?!" . . . eventually he decided he would meet the donut man, in Frisco Texas (he wanted to see the Shops at Legacy and visit Ikea so it was a win-win). 

The donut man's 3 wishes

  

      So the donut man met the business man at Frisco Square, just outside of the soccer stadium. 

             

           The donut man enthusiastically said "Hey buddy, good to see you!"

           The businessman said "Hi" but he didn't come here to exchange pleasantries . . . he wanted to get down to . . well . . . down to business!

          He blurted out "what did you wish for . . what are your three wishes?!!? and why are you so darn happy??? I read about your life . . . it seems so normal .  .  and bad things happened to you. . .  why are you so happy and what did you wish for??? Tell me! Please.... --and what's with the donkey???"

        The donut man started with the last question first.

         " The donkey? Oh, this is Taco, and he is my burro....named him 'Taco' cuz I figured 'Burrito' would be redundant.... " He said with a smile. The business man was not amused.

          "Huh....uh yeah....As for your other questions: it's simple.  I wished to have a happy and joyful life."

"'Joyful?" The business man pressed. "But....your life seems....well, pretty darn far from perfect!"

"Yip....Joyful....but I didn't mean 'perfect'...a joyful life has its ups and downs, it's full of things and people and relationships, it's loving, but at times it also calls for the difficult effort of letting go. And I have cried...some years I cried about as much as I laughed.... It's a life that is about the journey, and journeys can have a lot of joy and a lot of pain, but you always keep moving forward. I have a family, a job I enjoy, I've managed to remain an "okay" and decent person . . .I've raised kids I'm proud of, who are better than me in a lot of ways! I've had loss and sadness, but... . I'm thankful."

        "So....THAT'S IT???!!!" the business man exclaimed. 

        "Pretty much," the donut man answered.

         The business man stood there--stupefied

. And somewhat profoundly lost in thought . . .how can it be? He is truly happy . . .Saddened by these thoughts the business man put his head in his hands. 

        Then suddenly he looked at the donut man "But that's only one wish! You only wished once?!?"

         "No," said the donut man cheerfully . . ."no, I made 3 wishes that day"

       "What were they? Please tell me!" the business man pleaded.

        "Well, for my third wish. I wished that you would eventually be happy just like me .. . .even if it "undoes" your wishes . . . that is, if you want it . . . if you're ready for a journey" with an encouraging tone.

     

        The business man sat on the nearby bench . . .he looked dilapidated, defeated...like a leaning house of cards....and then he looked very fragile and small... and he sat there, silent for minutes. . . but to him it seemed like an eternity washed over him, like great waves curling and crashing onto the beach. He thought about all his possessions, friends, appointments . . . I can't give them up...that would be CRAZY!.... Then he looked at the donut man. . . 

"Can I keep everything and go on this 'journey'" ?

The donut man said "I know you have a lot of things...I saw you even have your own island...sorry about Kate Upton by the way...."

"but I have a feeling . . . you can't, you can't keep that and...change like you have to" The donut man now looked serious and very focused, and the business man had never seen him look this way---so sincerely serious.

Again he felt small. He thought and one word kept surfacing in his mind....no in his whole being...."Empty"...his life had been empty.

"Okay...." the business man, again looked fragile and broken..."what do I need to do?"

     The donut man quietly grabbed Taco's reigns and walked up the business man. Placed a hand on his shoulder.

    He said, "don't worry, it'll happen".

     The only thing the business man could think to say was "thank you."

      I few seconds later the business man came to. He inhaled deep, and sat up straight, he even smiled.(a real one). And he said . . ".but that's only two wishes. What was your other wish?"

     The donut man smiled and said "being happy is great and everything . . . but good luck getting your own FLYING donkey out of that deal! C'mon Taco, let's jet! Yahh!!!"

     The donut man hopped on Taco's back and began his flight home to the coast. 

    The Over.

.....

      

               

You don't know What You're Doing!!! ~Starting at Birth

  

                     Okay recently I've needed a lot of help, moral support type help. Thanks to all the family and friends by the way! But I've also recently found myself in a position to help others going through similar struggles. This includes dealing with uncertainty, feeling alone, loss, confusion, dark depression, a very long and hard wait for an answer to come. And I've realized, life is a mess. And I don't just mean mine and yours, I mean all our lives. Put them together and they're a mess, a crazy knotted up ball of different colors of yarn. Or a mess like a mixed bag of multicolor dirty laundry--where none of the freak'n socks match. I mean, even if my life is going well--nice and smooth, like a beautiful walk through the park-- your life could be like that scene in Star Wars where the fish-head guy yells "It's a TARP!"...I mean trap...and all special-effects hell breaks loose!

          And what does that mean from an eagle's eye-view? The world is a big frigg'n chaotic mess, because even when you put together people's whose lives are good, with people's whose lives are a mess--you still get a mess! So how do I connect this to my next paragraph (and more importantly my title for this post)? ....gimme a second I'm thinking....


          So it's all crazy chaos down here! Maybe, if we're lucky, we can have some order in our homes--but still sometimes that's only an illusion, and once you step outside, good luck with things being what you expect them to be. Things are NEVER how we expect them to be. Trust me, my job at work is to restock shelves, and make them look neat, that's it--simple. And I still end up with days where we are looking for lost children, someone falls off a ladder, or you end up cleaning 5 spills and broken bottles in the wine isle (do people shop for wine while drunk?). But still, we look for order and we try to impose it down here. Like I said, my job is to restock shelves, and reorder them neatly. Despite all the distractions, unexpected tasks, people looking for dish soap, I have a job. Our jobs are order in the chaos. We have calendars. We make appointments. We watch the clock. Even our internal craziness is ordered or reordered to conform to the world around us and also to our benefit, or what we think will benefit us.
         What it comes down to is, things become ordered to our wants and needs. Hopefully we have those in the correct order. I really don't think I recognize all my needs, and I even think I confuse a lot of my wants as needs. And this is how I end up not meeting some pretty important needs! But like I've talked about before, we have this "center of gravity", that helps us order the chaos around us and within us. Sometimes it just has to do with us staying alive and well--socially, emotionally, physically! But I think an interesting thing happens when we consider family. And I've noticed this most pronounced in some of my siblings and friends who have just become parents. Very quickly, and radically, things become ordered differently. And that's where this center of gravity is more clearly seen as what we can call love. Unquestionable, unmistakable, fearless, loyal, cohesive, and fully enveloping love.

           In a world where chaos and the whirling storm is the normal, the love of a family for a child is like another storm even--even stronger. Potentially. It reorders the chaos of the world to itself. And just as every hurricane or typhoon has an eye--a center--that is peaceful calm, but still the center of the whirlwind, our love also has a center. Hopefully the day you were born, you became that eye of the storm, that reordered a chaos around you, and reordered it into family, into love. And you had no idea what you were doing at the time =] most babies don't. And as adults, we still don't know what we're doing, for other people, or for this crazy world we live in.

The Man Who Chased The Sun

             

             A long time ago in the East, there was a man who woke up late in the day. His name was Tomorrow. When Tomorrow woke up and realized that much of the day had already passed him by, he frantically got dressed gathered himself up and decided he would chase the Sun, in order to regain the daylight he had lost.
              He ran as quickly as his feet could carry him, but he was still losing light, the day was getting away from him.  Just as he realized this wouldn't do, his feet weren't fast enough and he would lose the day, he came upon a man who stood next to a horse. The man looked tired, and sad.  Tomorrow offered everything he had with him for the horse.  But the man told him that the horse would probably serve Tomorrow "no better than it did himself." The man explained that he had also chased the sun. He said "I felt like I was always just about to catch it, but I never did."
             Tomorrow didn't listen, all he knew was that he was losing the day...it was nearly dusk and he believed that surely, with this horse he could regain the light he had lost. So the man sold him his horse, and it's name was Haste.  So Tomorrow set off with Haste and chased the sun. He rode for days, and weeks, and possibly even a year. The entire time he was in the twilight, between the day and the setting sun. He always felt he was so close. But the truth was, the light was always distant, and the dark was always more abundant.  Finally Tomorrow came upon a man he thought he knew. That he was sure he knew.
             It was the man who sold him Haste. But the man looked happy, rejuvenated, and peaceful. Tomorrow passed him by, he thought "I cannot stop, I am so close..."  But his heart burned within him, he felt unable to go on, he had to return to that man.
            Haste took him quickly back to the man.

            Tomorrow said "I remember you, you're the man who sold me this horse!  But you look different now. When I first met you you were tired and withered and looked full of despair. What happened, what happened to you?"
         
             The man said "come down from the horse, and I'll tell you." 
             So Tomorrow set Haste aside.
     
            "My name is Today.  When you met me I was called Tomorrow. And I had been riding Haste to chase the sun, just as you have. And I remained in the twilight. Worry, fear, and longing were my only companions, and of course, Haste." 
             "When you found me, I had just given up on chasing the sun, I had been chasing it for years. And I tried to convince you to not go with Haste . . . but you did. And I let you, because I thought that maybe, you would do what I couldn't, maybe you would catch the sun, and regain time, and get back your day. So I let you go."
            "But when you left something happened. Something that I had not experienced in a long time, since before I began chasing the sun.  Night came. And I was afraid. I thought it would last forever . . .I had forgotten what Night was, is. You are seeing it now.
           Suddenly Tomorrow realized that the final light was disappearing, he was about to lose the sun forever . . . he made for Haste! But this time Today grabbed hold of him and said "NO".  And he took off Haste's saddle and bridal and sent him off on his way.
           Tomorrow fell to his knees and placed his face in his hands, then looking up with tears flowing down to his lips he looked to Today and pleaded "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!?, why did you do this to me, why?!! Day is lost forever, my day is lost."
           Today understood how Tomorrow felt, but said firmly, "I've freed you. Neither of us was meant to ride that horse for so long. Worry not, if we need him, he will come back around--just as you did. . .
           I want you to wait here with me. I want you to see what I did, the Night. And you will be like me. You've been chasing the sun for so long that you have forgotten, I can see it in your eyes and hear it in your voice . . . you've forgotten that the sun will come to us.  It will come to you and me when it comes to all, and we will know it's warmth and its light, we will bask in the Day! And there will be no delaying it. There will be another day son. And it will come again, and again, I promise. I have seen hundreds of days, glorious and splendid since you left me. Wait with me. Trust me."

         " Night is here, but the sun will always come, brother, I promise. And Tomorrow I will call you Today."

~Elijah  ( AKA Tomorrow =)