A Journey: An Original Poem

I'd rather be on a boat that sails
On a windswept ocean with sailors' tales.
Or a place that is cool like the dawn of the sun
Where the world reborn awakes as one.
In jungles in deserts on mountains on wings
I wish I could do just one of these things.
My life as it sits is really quite glum
I wake up still tired and retire quite numb.
My waist is still growing as my pocketbook shrinks
Good news, the market has a sale on cold drinks!
I think I'll go get one and then I'll feel well.
Oh yes, the cream soda! I'll buy all they will sell.
And then I'll come home, and feeling rather amused,
I'll reread the books I've already perused.
Oh this will be grand, I can tell it is so!
Now to the market I quickly will go.

I'm home from the market, and uncertain what to feel.
A con man with a cane robbed my bubbly white meal.

While at the market in my dear isle three,
An old man nearby started talking with me.
He noticed my unkempt and frazzled delight
At the soda full stocked that would last me all night.
"Why so much soda?" He asked with a beam.
A sneaky approach to his devilish scheme.
I said, "it's for me, and I like it a bunch!"
He smirked and shot back, "I had a bit of a hunch."
In that moment my waistband, it grew like a weed!
The outlandish pronouncement of my size he'd decreed!
"HOW DARE YOU?!?" I REBUFFED,
My hair was all bristly and my cheeks were all puffed.
I was angry, it was sure, and about to attack
But he sat there so still and he softly looked back.
"Why are you here on this Earth?" he replied,
Looking gentle and calm with his cane by his side.
Now completely unbalanced I looked at him baffled,
My answer lay dead on the hangman's thought scaffold.
"Why am I here?" I thought to myself
Wishing I knew, and that I were an elf.
For the elves are so wise.. let's lay that thought to rest.
The Lord of the Rings is undoubted the best.
Now back to the story, I knew not the rebut
So I stood there considering the size of MY butt.
And how he STOOD THERE IN PUBLIC
HE REPROVED MY LARGE SIZE
I wanted nothing so much as a shot at his eyes.
But he saw this in me and with a polite little nod
Pushed away his little cart and didn't think it was odd.
And I stood there and watched him walk away with such grace
I hope no one saw the shame on my face.
The soda replaced, I shuffled out of the store.
No joy in my heart, I was struck to the core.

Looking back at this memory through the lens of much time
I see this day like a blessing, and not like a crime.
For this was the day that I saw there was more
Than the next thrilling novel, and the cheap soda store.
But not just more world that I had not yet known.
My novels had pictures, and the wonders they'd shown.
But I somehow had never believed I could do
All the things that I read in the books with the crew.
With the question of why I was here, my life changed.
I realized my thoughts were often deranged.
I CAN go to Paris and I CAN sail a ship.
So I made some life changes and started planning my trip.
I quit buying soda, and the novels went too
All the money was saved and the fund slowly grew.
Still it wasn't enough, so I found some more work
It payed really poorly, there wasn't much of a perk.
But my fund slowly grew and I was feeling alive
Instead of at ten, I woke up at five!
And I went to bed early for I wanted good sleep
And about my small trials I seldom did weep.
I sold my TV and I bought a new bike,
Turns out exercise is actually something I like!
A while later I made a friend who kindly asked me
If I'd like to come with him, and serve kids in Haiti.
That trip changed my life, and I learned how to give
I decided that's how I wanted to live.

Many trips later, I write from a boat
On the windswept ocean near an island remote.
I ponder the man and his question long ago
"Why are you here on this Earth?" Do I know?
And I think that I finally do understand -
This life came out more than I ever had planned.
I've seen countries and peoples and helped them along.
I danced with the children and they taught me their song.
In the jungles I helped give birth to a child
It made the jungles look tame - that night was wild.
I've loved and been loved and my heart feels so bright.
I found God somewhere in there, and He gave me His light.
Tonight I believe that the answer is clear
I know my purpose - I know why I'm here.
I'm here to love, and to give and to be.
Thanks God, I know now how much You love me.

I love You too.