The events below did not actually happen but this is a true story nonetheless.
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Once upon a time there lived a boy. And that boy was me. You may say that you can’t write a story beginning with once upon a time about yourself but I am.
But not only about myself. This story is hardly even about me. Not really. This is the story of my friend Adventure. “Adventure?” you may say. “That is not the name of a person.” But why shouldn’t it be? Because it has not been done before? That is what makes Adventure so special.
I first met Adventure when I was very young. Two or three I think. We had the most wonderful times together. We needed no introduction to become friends, we simply were. Friendship does not require introductions when you are young, only laughter. And of that there was plenty.
Adventure and I would be the best of friends, inseparable, for many years after. We defended castles together, discovered new lands, defeated foul creatures, befriended many others, and laughed through it all.
But one day it was time for me to stop being friends with Adventure. My parents, teachers, neighbors, and even my other friends all told me so. They told me it was time to separate from my inseparable friend and begin to grow up. And I made the biggest mistake of my life.
I listened. And I forgot. And it was forgetting, not growing up, that was my mistake.
And so soon, all that remained were vague memories of Adventure that made me uncomfortable because I could sense that they were important but I could not remember why. Unable to reconcile those two sensations I stuffed my memories even deeper so I would not have to feel the discontent in my heart.
Years passed in this way and I began to forget more of Adventure, even as I became closer friends with Worry and Planning. We became inseparable, even as Adventure and I had been, but it was not the same sort of friendship at all. There was much less laughter and fewer castles. Well that’s not totally true about the castles. There were actually a great number of castles but none of them were ours and we didn’t conquer any of them together. We didn’t even try.
Even with such close friends, even with two of them instead of just one, I was not happy. Not like the days I spent with Adventure. But now I could not remember the days when I was happy. I did not know there was any other way to live.
Still, I was discontent with how my life was going. I did not know what I could do but I knew something was wrong. And so one day I went on a walk by myself. I told Worry and Planning that I would be home soon and off I went. It had been ages since I had been by myself and the feeling was quite odd. It felt like something was missing. But in a good way mostly.
And so I walked. And I thought. And the more I walked, the harder I thought. And the harder I thought the faster I walked until I was no longer walking, but running as hard as I could and thinking even harder. So lost in thought was I that I failed to see where I was going and I found myself on the ground, my legs still pumping as fast as my mind. As my legs ceased their work my mind, if it can be believed, started working even harder.
For laying tangled with me in the dust was a boy with a face that I could nearly place but every time I thought I had it I lost it again.
“I’m so very sorry boy,” I said as I stood and dusted myself off. “I wasn’t watching at all where I was going.”
Expecting him to be hurt from the collision, I was quite surprised when, instead of crying, he laughed. Laughed! “It’s quite alright, I almost never know where I’m going,” he told me as he continued to chuckle. “Life is so much more fun that way.”
“What, are you not even hurt?” I couldn’t believe it. I, a grown adult, had run right over this boy who looked to be no more than ten, and he sat here laughing.
“Of course I’m hurt,” the boy told me with a smile teasing at his lips. “You’re quite a lot bigger than I am. But what’s so bad about being hurt?”
“Well you…I mean it doesn’t…it feels bad,” I finished weakly. What did he mean, ‘What’s so bad about being hurt?’ No one likes to be hurt.
“Yes it does,” the boy replied. “But if I was never hurt I would not know how good it is to not be hurt. You see, I am hurt now but soon I will be well again. And when I am I will love it even more because you ran over me and made me fall.”
To this I had no response. Instead I studied the boy closer. “Do I know you?”
At this the boy’s smile slowly disappeared and his eyes began to show just a hint of sadness. Turning his face to the ground he said, so softly I almost missed it, “You did. Once.” He paused for a moment, then continued speaking, still quietly. “We stormed castle gates together. We explored every corner of the earth. There was no creature too terrible for us to defeat. But then you grew up. You forgot.”
Such sadness was in his voice by the time he finished, he could barely get the last word out and tears welled up in my own eyes as I heard the emotion in his words. I dropped to my knee and took his hand in my own. As I did he looked up at me and I could see the tears that flowed from his eyes, coating his cheeks.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered. “Adventure I am so sorry.”
Adventure sniffed and wiped his eyes with his hand, then looked at me and smiled. “You remember.”
Then he stood abruptly and his sadness became exuberant joy. “And if you remember then we can be best friends again. It will be just like it used to be. Come on!”
And with that he was off and running. He had gone only a few paces before he turned to make sure I was following and found that I was not.
“What’s wrong? We have to save the Kingdom.”
Still rooted in place I looked at him half apologetically and half ashamed. “Adventure I remember you now, but I don’t remember how,” I said averting my eyes. I did not want to see my friends reaction when he found out I had become a grown up.
He was silent for a long while and I thought maybe he had left but when I looked up I found him looking at me with a smirk. “That’s okay,” he assured me matter-of-factly. “I’ll just have to show you how again. I’ll teach you. It’s really quite easy.”
He skipped to my side and grabbed my hand. “First we’ll need weapons. Let’s go find some,” he said as he pulled me toward the trees.
“That sounds dangerous,” I said with my best adult voice.
“Very.” Adventure winked at me as he said it.
Letting go of my hand, Adventure raced behind a massive tree and returned with two sticks in his hand. He gave one to me as he proudly proclaimed, “Here. I have found you a sword.”
I looked from the stick in my hand to his face, beaming with pride, back to my stick. “This is a stick,” I said very seriously.
“Of course it’s not,” my friend scoffed. “It’s a sword and it’s very dangerous.”
“Adventure I can see it. It’s a stick.”
He studied me for a moment, with his hand on his chin like he was stroking a beard that did not exist. After a few moments he spoke. “This is more serious than I thought. You can’t see anything at all.”
“Of course I can see,” I objected. “I’m looking at you after all.”
“Oh your eyes work fine,” Adventure said, waving his hand at me. “That’s not what I meant at all. You see, it’s your heart that is blind.”
“My heart,” I said blankly. “My heart is for pumping blood, not for seeing.”
“That is such a grown-up thing to say,” my little friend responded. “Of course your heart is for seeing. It’s even more important than your eyes. Your eyes see the world as it appears but your heart sees the world as it is.”
“Those are the same thing Adventure.”
“Are they?” he asked with a twinkle in his eyes. Before I could respond he continued. “My eyes look at you and they tell me that you are a successful, and therefore happy, grown-up. But my heart sees more. It knows you are not happy. Not at all.”
He was right. I was surprised to find that I could see the truth of his words. Not with my eyes of course, but with my heart.
“I used to be able to see didn’t I?” Adventure nodded. “How can I again?”
Adventure held up his stick. “Look,” he said. “Really look. See this? It is not a stick. It’s a sword!”
Try as I might though I could see only a stick. Exasperated I said to Adventure, “I can only see a stick. That is not a sword! Am I just supposed to make believe? I thought this would be real!”
I threw down my stick and started to storm away but his voice stopped me. “Of course you’re supposed to make believe. But why shouldn’t that be real?” I turned to look at him and he continued. “I told you, your heart sees the world as it is, not as it appears. Your heart sees the world as you believe it to be. You might even say your heart creates the world as you believe it to be.”
“Now how can that be true,” I interrupted. “The world cannot be different for every heart that believes it to be so.”
“Why not?” he asked. “You are confusing your heart with your eyes again. If I believe that the day is the night and the night is the day then, for me, it is. The world does not appear any different yet everything has changed. So of course you must make believe. Belief is only the acceptance of what is. But it cannot be seen by the eyes if the heart will not see first.”
He bent down and retrieved my stick. Placing it back in my hand he said, “You ask for something real? I tell you this is real.”
I held his gaze for a moment longer then I lifted my hand and looked down to see the reflection of the trees in the sword I now held. Grinning like a boy and not like a grown-up at all I looked at my friend again. “I’ll race you to the castle gates.”
Without waiting for his answer I took off, ready to conquer whatever obstacles lay before me. For now I knew, Adventure was right. Seeing does not create believing. It’s the other way round. And I knew from that day forward, I would go wherever Adventure called. Near or far, big or small, possible or impossible.
I also knew Adventure was not someone I should see only every once in a while, when I could sneak a moment away from Worry and Planning. No, he was far too important to me. I would see him frequently, every day if I could. And some days we would conquer dragons, but some days we would simply admire the shapes in the clouds. Whatever we did, I knew my life would be full of Adventure again. The way it was meant to be.
