~ Ali Grimshaw

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“If you expect me to answer my own question, I confess that I do not know.”

They call me an adult. Yes, I have learned to make spaghetti sauce, to drive a car. I have mastered some dance steps and can write a concise email response (using spell check to avoid the embarrassments of the past.)

But what have I really learned in my days of clouds passing, night thundershake and the revisiting of another spring? Days of scarlet fever, owning mistakes and reimagining?

With another ring around my trunk, adding layers of curious, I know that I know less with passing time. Like paint peeling off an old house I am more than one color. I live as a revolving door to exit and enter, each time with a different view.

Growing up I thought adults had all the answers, lived in comfortable sureness. Shocked disappointment crashed down when the truth broke through with no answers in its hands.

Why didn’t mom tell me adulthood didn’t come with all the answers.

“She had only one explanation for this fact: things have to be transmitted this way because they were made up from the pure life, and this kind of life cannot be captured in pictures or words.”

1. Illusions by Richard Bach

2. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

Written for the dVerse challenge, Bridging the Gap: Select two quotes from two different books. You decide whether you want them recklessly random or slightly/significantly more intentional. Then, construct a poem using one quote as the opening line and the other as the closing line. The blood, sweat, and tears will come while filling in the space between. You may modify the quotes to fit your poem’s rhythm or rhyme scheme, but just be sure to provide the original quotes, authors, and works in a postscript.

 

30 thoughts on “”

  1. I love this, particularly your description of gaining another ring in your tree of life. I am right there with you! I’m an adult, I have jobs, I’m getting married but I am still sorely lacking in wisdom and sureness.

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  6. Great post, Ali! When I was young, I remembering thinking that adults always behaved like adults..rationally and reasonably. I thought the “politics” of the elementary playground high school were things people outgrew, and I was so startled to realize that was not always the case. Of course, now that we have reality shows where adults are actually proud of acting selfish and immature, I guess children no longer have those illusions?

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    1. That’s an interesting question. I wonder what children and teens think of adults now days. Children are exposed to the adult world in such different ways than they were when I was growing up.

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  7. “With another ring around my trunk, adding layers of curious, I know that I know less with passing time” sadly this is truth we all come to know as we get older. Excellent words and I really like the lines used to open and close.

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  8. Both of your chosen books were two of the few we used to carry with us into the wilderness where we taught adjudicated teenagers life skills, navigation, and the things no adult ever taught us. The spirit quest is mostly lost in our materialistic and competitive societies, but if we did take it more seriously we would equip ourselves better for adulthood, life and death, and come to a realization as Björn did: we need not pursue answers, but further questions. Thanks so much, Ali, this was an enjoyable read.

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    1. I keep very few books and rarely read a book more than once. These two titles have lasted over time and have been fun to read at different stages in my life. Thanks for sharing your experience. We need to keep taking young people out into the wilderness.

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  9. With another ring around my trunk, adding layers of curious, I know that I know less with passing time. Like paint peeling off an old house I am more than one color. I live as a revolving door to exit and enter, each time with a different view.

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  11. I love you and I miss you, Ali!!! I woke up at 4:26am this morning thinking someone was breaking in, but it was just Valerie leaving for Gator by the Bay! That means you get to dance this weekend!! Yeah!! I can’t wait to hear your adventures. Let’s find time to run and catch up when you return. XO E

    On Thu, May 10, 2018, 7:16 PM flashlight batteries wrote:

    > Ali Grimshaw posted: ” “If you expect me to answer my own question, I > confess that I do not know.” They call me an adult. Yes, I have learned to > make spaghetti sauce, to drive a car. I have mastered some dance steps and > can write a concise email response (using spell check t” >

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    1. I miss you too dear friend. Yes I get to dance this weekend and I couldn’t be happier about that. We definitely need a date. Let’s make it happen. Love to you

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