Life’s questions dotted the landscape of my mind before memory. Like thistles scattered by an errant wind, questions planted themselves in secret wherever carried, rising with spiky yellow faces – not dead but transformed and ever insistent.
Curiosity, like road signs upon my genetic map, directed me one Saturday morning, post Pop Tarts & Milk, in pursuit. I was in the backyard, still in pajamas, preparing a feast of Texas mud pies with fresh rainwater from last night’s storm.
A thunderstorm in the Great Plains is a show stopping production Broadway could only dream to rival. Coffee colored eyes observed a troubled sky and flashes of lightning – fearfully fascinated by its sharp jagged legs, marching across the deep midnight with its great electric legs. Each time the great Nature stomped, we heard it as thunder.
It was easy to believe the old Norse mythological tales of Thor on his mighty chariot venting his wrath! I knew the stories weren’t “real” but was willing to suspend disbelief in favor of imagination – and this was the morning after.
ladder image from ivwisdom.com
Seeking the hose to wash muddy hands, I spied a ladder in solitary repose leaning against the roof. Dad was up earlier installing the “weather rooster”. The ruckus disrupted my umpteenth viewing of my favorite Scooby Doo. He abandoned the towering invitation keep his date with a fishing pole. Now the invitation was mine.
Questions crowded my head crushing caution. Curiosity spouted freely as I sidled a bit closer to gaze wide-eyed up its length. Just beyond the end of the ladder, were clouds like fluffy cotton bolls with bottoms like over baked biscuits. In their momentum of the rain clouds mesmerized, brushing in haste past the rooftop.
Aware the death penalty – or worse, a spanking was imminent, I whipped around to check for mother or any tattletales. The drone of the vacuum informed me Mom was otherwise engaged. Maci and Joe, probably glad to be rid of “the little pest”, were elsewhere.
Transfixed, I took hold, fingernails biting into palms. With
toes gripping inside my sneakers, I began climbing. My knees floated, as if I tiptoed upon the clouds getting closer by measure. My lips parted in a gap-toothed smile from the idea I may soon discover the source of rainbows and the secret of rainy days.
Moments later, the rooftop broke into view. Shingles and dried pitch crackled under my knees. As I gingerly scuttled, I no longer crawled across a high rooftop but now traversed rough terrain for Yukon gold, then inched along a jungle floor on safari. Adventure found me on my back watching clouds shift, spreading out like sheets on our clothesline.
Patches of blue and momentary shafts of light beamed and leftover raindrops found my upturned face. A cold stray splashed onto the furrow under my nose and promptly disappeared into my smile.
Aware I couldn’t tarry in this forbidden land, I retraced and stepped carefully back upon the ladder. I paused looking about from my lofty perch. I witnessed leafy treetops bursting with preening birds, gazed upon the naked field behind our house and observed the lonely stretch of interstate adjacent.
Moreover, young eyes washed over a world far beyond familiar fences. The path sprung up before me from unformed dreams like seeds in the soil of my mind. I, like dreams, was safely ensconced in the bosom of family, requiring nurture to blossom.
With new knowledge and old wisdom, I began the trek back. I realized this is how Jacob’s angels brought answers to prayer. I delivered up a smile to the one who surely measured my steps as I descended.
When in life have you learned a new lesson that lead you to a place where an old wisdom was revealed to you?
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