A Prickle-ly Perch

Today I enjoyed a blanket-on-the-ground picnic with my friend, Leigh Anne.  We go back a few years, I'm gonna say about 5 to 7, I think.

We talked about things both silly and of depth.  Among them, thoughts of our our future, calling, dreams and the mixture of fear and excitement that comes with such thoughts.  Later on while lesson planning,  (she's an elementary ed student), she stumbled across Dr. Seuss's little book, Oh! the Places You'll Go! She shared some of the lines with me.  It's a bit cheesy, of course - it is a Dr. Suess book - but encouraging and funny too.  Thought I'd share a bit with you. 


Oh! The Places You’ll Go!

You’ll be on your way up!
You’ll be seeing great sights!
You’ll join the high fliers who soar to high heights.

You won’t lag behind, because you’ll have the speed. You’ll pass the whole gang and you’ll soon take the lead. Wherever you fly, you’ll be best of the best. Wherever you go, you will top all the rest.

Except when you don’t.
Because, sometimes, you won’t.

I’m sorry to say so but, sadly, it’s true that Bang-ups and Hang-ups can happen to you.

You can get all hung up in a prickle-ly perch. And your gang will fly on. You’ll be left in a Lurch.

You’ll come down from the Lurch with an unpleasant bump. And the chances are, then, that you’ll be in a Slump.

And when you’re in a Slump, you’re not in for much fun. Un-slumping yourself is not easily done.

You will come to a place where the streets are not marked. Some windows are lighted. But mostly they’re darked. A place you could sprain both your elbow and chin! Do you dare to stay out? Do you dare to go in? How much can you lose? How much can you win?

And if you go in, should you turn left or right…or right-and-three-quarters? Or, maybe, not quite? Or go around back and sneak in from behind? Simple it’s not, I’m afraid you will find, for a mind-maker-upper to make up his mind.

You can get so confused that you’ll start in to race down long wiggled roads at a break-necking pace and grind on for miles across weirdish wild space, headed, I fear, toward a most useless place.

The Waiting Place…for people just waiting.
 ...
I’m afraid that some times you’ll play lonely games too. Games you can’t win ‘cause you’ll play against you.

All Alone!
Whether you like it or not, Alone will be something you’ll be quite a lot.

And when you’re alone, there’s a very good chance you’ll meet things that scare you right out of your pants. There are some, down the road between hither and yon, that can scare you so much you won’t want to go on.

But on you will go though the weather be foul. On you will go though your enemies prowl. On you will go though the Hakken-Kraks howl...
...
I laugh when I read this not because I am making light of the pain and frustration of struggles, dark times and confusion, but because I get stuck thinking I am alone in my experience.  I know this is completely untrue, and  I have to keep reminding myself that I couldn't be more wrong.  If there's anything through which I can identify with a brother or sister, anything that will bind us together other than our shared joys, it is those seasons of darkness and struggle - those slumps in which we all find ourselves and the grace of God that brings us to the other side.  Let us not be afraid to share when we find ourselves in a prickle-ly perch or when we come to a place where the streets are not marked. 

And so we come to the end of life lessons from Dr. Seuss...although I'm sure there are more.  Avoid the green eggs, though.