Originally published in The Newnan Times-Herald, read here.
I once went on an adventure. Early one Saturday morning, I gathered my snacks, canteen, backpack, and everything an adventure would require. Out of the front door over the first hill, I met my friend.
Next, we passed a pond, then crossed a field, through a great wood, until we reached a small river where a tree lay across. We made it to the other side. This was the place where a fort was built to defend the realm.
I once went on an adventure across the pond. I went to a place I had never been, but was trained to be. Across the desert I drove, through death and smoke, but not alone. This was a place where a fort was built to defend the realm.
I once went on an adventure.
“You have an invention?” they asked.
“Yes,” I said. “If you need this or that, it will do it.”
Some said go away. Some said it will not. Some said you’re wasting your time.
I said, “Maybe you’re right.”
This was where the fort was overrun.
I once went on an adventure. Near the sand, near the sea, a place we all want to be. It was there I saw her again. My eyes could not believe. She was a morning sunrise, bright like the midday sun, as beautiful as the sunset, with eyes like the night sky. With every smile, I knew this was where a fort would be built that we may live together and travel the realm.
I once went on an adventure.
“You have another invention?” they asked.
“Yes. If you need this or that, it will do it.”
“I see,” they said. “We agree. Three million dollars it will be.”
I went forth, and a fort I built.
“For all of us,” they said. “For all to see.”
But in six months, it was no longer me.
“They said, this will be ours, and without thee.”
This was where the fort was overrun.
I once went on an adventure. It was different than before. Meeting many people, crossing oceans, valleys, the desert plains, mountains that touched the clouds, rivers that fed the seas, and other forts that protected the land. And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat upon my fort, and it fell not, for it was founded upon a rock.
I once went on an adventure that spanned a great time. There were strongholds that failed, some were overrun, some were taken, but one withstood them all. While we met near the sand, a place by the ocean. The fort we built together was the one that did not fall. When the storms came, we weathered them all. It was the fort on the rock that protected us all.
Now, I turn to you.
What say you about your adventures, great and small?
Have your forts been taken, overrun, or did they fall?
Have you drifted to the shore and chosen adventure no more?
Seasons will come and seasons will go.
But there is something I want you to know.
You still have stories you need to tell.
You still have something to build.
Perhaps from the rock this time you shall.
Because I once went on an adventure that I can now tell.
Perhaps now… You will start something that will be a worthy tale.
Until next time, I’ll leave you with that.
