Third Star to the Right & Straight on til Adulthood

Once I spoke the language of the flowers,
Once I understood each word the caterpillar said,
Once I smiled in secret at the gossip of the starlings,
And shared a conversation with the housefly
in my bed.
Once I heard and answered all the questions
of the crickets,
And joined the crying of each falling dying
flake of snow,
Once I spoke the language of the flowers. . . .
How did it go?
How did it go?
~Shel Silverstein

How did it go? This morning as I was riding the train in I started thinking (as one often does on a train filled with bizarre and smelly people). I'm about to enter a new phase, a restart, a new chapter (or perhaps it won't be as profound as all of that), and I suppose it is that which is new that makes us remember things that have passed. Maybe it's the fact that I will be turning 25 soon (marking a quarter of a century of life lived!). Or maybe I can't deal with adulthood so I'm regressing already!! Isn't that supposed to happen when you hit 85? Time will tell. As my brain wandered through the cavernous wastelands of itself, I became stressed...so much to do, so many things in life experienced, what on earth is my life turning into. Suddenly out of nowhere I caught a scent of something...(and no it wasn't the bean burrito the guy next to me ate the night before! gosh!), I'm not entirely sure what it was actually but it suddenly transported me back by about 18 years of when I used to build forts out of old blankets, and hang out in the treehouse in the backyard, and swing out on the old rope. When I used to pull out every blanket and pillow in the entire house (including the attic!) and make a huge bed I could jump on and flop on pretending I was a stunt double! When my dad used to take that old green blanket (which always had the best smell) and rolled me up in it pretending I was a sausage...and carried me around the house. When everything consisted of "what do you want to play today??" "I don't know, what do you want to play?" "Let's play crazy eddie!!" "Ok!!" **Crazy Eddie for those of you who don't know basically consisted of one person out on this twisted tree vine right outside the window of the tree house jumping up and down on it like a madman (or madwoman depending), and yelling at the others to let him/her in the window! They in turn would basically just yell back "nooo!! you can't come in!!" The things that amuse us as children. And please correct me Miss V. if your rememberance of the synopsis of that game differs from mine!** We all tend to miss childhood...the "no-responsibility" phase of life when your biggest worry was if you'd have enough quarters for the ice cream man that day! That one smell triggered dozens upon dozens of good memories and feelings, and suddenly life seemed less chaotic. At the same time I was listening to an old Caedmon's Call song (I have this thing lately about old songs)...and this one lyric stood out to me... "You know I know better, I'm not gonna worry 'bout nothin'...cause if the birds and the flowers survive then I'll make it okay." It's so simple a thought, but I find that the simplest things in life tend to be the most profound. If the birds and the flowers survive season after season...how much more will I be able to make it alright. If a flower can withstand all of the changing seasons (a quality which was divinely created) how much moreso will God make sure he sees that I'm taken care of through every season of my life, and your life. Laying it all aside, we press on to take hold of the promise of the future...he couldn't have planned the end and not planned the means. That is the hope that I've chosen to cling to, because without it I'm lost.