INNEREAL ADVENTURES - ONE

THE EPILOGUE

THE EPILOGUE

   [It took me about four months to write down The Adventure of Byron and Jacobis in the blank black hardbound book that my daughter gave to me for Christmas. I actually had to purchase another one of those books because the one that she gave to me wasn’t enough, and I almost filled up the second one (which is what I am writing in now).

   By the way, it was the daughter who asked all of the vocabulary questions in the story who gave me the blank black book for Christmas. And, just so you know, the original telling of the story was fifteen years prior to receiving that gift from her. The three children bugged me off and on during that time to write the story down, but I guess it took actually staring at all of those blank white pages in that book to finally convince me that they really ought to be filled up with the story of Byron and Jacobis.

   As you can probably guess, the writing down of the story caused the adventure to take on a world of its own. I did maintain the main characters and the main events that were in the original oral story, including how Byron transformed into a solid and a liquid and a vapor to get out of predicaments. But, of course, much more came into my mind as I was writing it all down.

   I was also motivated to write the story because of having lived the last fifteen years as a father to my five fine children. The story is primarily a collection of thoughts that I wanted to share with them about how I feel about each of them. Obviously, it is not merely an adventure story. It is packed with life truths, which are what I wanted to record for them. Understandably, it took me about the last fifteen years to learn these truths myself, so I used the vehicle of an old oral story as an acorn that I hope will grow into a flourishing oak tree full of thoughts and ideas that they can climb up into.

   It is a fact of parenting life that, if you pay attention, you learn a lot from your children. Parenting is the great and masterful school of experience. So in reality, the story is about what I learned from my five orbs (yes, each orb represents one of my five children). The story is about things that I have learned from them and it is about things that I have learned about them. And, each orb also represents my vision for that particular child.

   The first orb is all about my first daughter. She is the one who sat in the seat next to mine in the family minivan on the way to Grandpa’s house and kept answering the vocabulary questions from her younger sister, who was in the back seat. She is Truth. That is my vision for her. She likes knowledge. She craves information. She is an academic. So, my vision for her is to develop a strong foundation of truth in her life, one that she can stand firm upon and one that will light her path. By the way, her eyes are that color of blue that you call blue because you don’t know what else to call it.

   The second orb is all about my son. He is the quiet one who listens intently to a story and just lets his imagination take control and deliver him right into the midst of the story. His eyes are that beautiful brown color that I described for the second orb. He nearly drowned in our backyard swimming pool when he was a year and four months old, which, sadly, was a result of my negligence. I am still not over it to this day. I found him face down and rescued and revived him and, fortunately, there was no damage done, other than some emotional scars for him and for me. So, my vision for him is resurrection – life from death. I see many things in his life that will be fruitful – things that look a little dead right now that I think will grow and flourish like an oak tree. He is Life.

   The third orb is all about my second daughter and, no, she does not have rainbow colored eyes, but her life is full of color and full of joy. She is joyful. She just is. She always has been. Yes, she can be a pain at times like everyone else, but she still seems to end up joyful. She takes the hard lessons and learns to see the silver lining in them. She is a good representation of the Way of Bliss.

   The fourth orb is all about my second son. He and his mother have those real true blue eyes. The kind where there is no question about it. They are blue, clear blue. He is quite opinionated and stands firmly by his opinions. He seems to form his own ideas about things and believes pretty strongly that they are correct. My vision for him is Faith. He doesn’t let anyone move him from his position or influence him to join their view (not even me). He is discerning and does his research and sticks with something until he decides that it is better to move away from it. For the most part, he can see through a sham and he can cut right through a false front.

   Now, the fifth orb is all about my third daughter. She is the last and she brings Hope to the whole story. She ties it all together. Her eyes are that type of weird color that shifts back and forth from blue to green. Sometimes they look green and sometimes they look blue. Her hope is that certain expectation of coming good. It is not the type of hope wherein there is a possibility that something may not happen and there is a hope that it will.

   So, that pretty much covers the connection between things in the story and things in my life.]

Thanks for reading.

KD ~j~