Have you?

I love to travel.  I travel all over the world, and to worlds never seen before, all the time.

 I sat in a red tent with my mothers and aunts.  I wasn’t old enough, wasn’t ready, but I was the favorite, and the youngest, and I got to do anything I wanted.

I joined a circus and met the woman of my dreams.  I rode the circus train, saw the burlesque dancers grow old and ungraceful, and bonded with an elephant who only spoke Polish.

I rode a white Companion, linked to his mind until he died in a battle to save my life.  I travelled with him around the country, settling arguments and guarding the borders.  I met men who live in trees and bond with birds of prey.  I raised the finest horses in the world, the envy of Kings and Knights in all countries.

I caused a flood in the Plaza hotel in New York City.  I let the bath water overflow from the penthouse suite for so long that the ballroom became a Vienna ball, complete with canals.  I ordered a raisin from room service for my pet turtle, Skipperdee. 

I caught crawfish and crabs in the swamplands of Louisiana.  I know what a raw oyster tastes like.  I survived a tragedy, my marriage suffered, I triumphed, and I grew old with my spouse.

I learned to write a secret language of women.  My best friend and I wrote letters to each other on a fan.  Our feet were broken and healed.  I lived in a tiny house with my family until my father arranged my marriage. 

I lived at a boarding school where I met my two best friends and learned to use the talent I was born with.  I felt the burning evil of a scar I don’t remember receiving.  I defeated Evil itself, and came away with a clearer view of virtue and vice.

My parents died of cholera and left me orphaned.  When a soldier found me alone in my house, I went to live with my uncle in a house with a hundred rooms and a mysterious secret.

I went rock climbing and when a boulder fell on my hand, I was trapped for days until I severed my own hand to get free.  I had a prosthetic hand made with a climbing hook, and I still climb canyons all over the world.

I took over my grandmother’s shoe company.  I designed shoes, sewed them by hand, and sold them to an exclusive (and wealthy) clientele. 

I crossed the ocean in wooden boats designed to survive being submerged, flipped upside down, and windblown.  I saw by glowing rocks in the dark hull of my tiny boat until I reached the other coast.

I was forced to leave my husband and become a servant of the Commander’s wife.  My duty was to bear her children.  My rights as a person were rescinded—I was denied even the right to read and write.  But I survived, and came through without losing my sense of self.

I built a thriving cattle ranch in the Arizona Territory after losing my first husband to another woman.  My second husband was killed in a war.  I kept my ranch, working it with my sons and hired hands, and watched it grow and prosper along with my children.

I met bonobos who knew American Sign Language the day before their home was bombed.  I lost them, found them, and helped rescue them.  I left them in a preserve designed to keep them healthy and happy while they helped humans understand genetics and sociology from another perspective.

I sat with a dying professor every week, learning about life and philosophy, talking about politics, right vs. wrong, and faith in god.

I lost a daughter in a car accident while her sister was fighting cancer.

I witnessed a murder and retained an attorney before I turned ten.  I was key in the court case to prove guilt and take a bad man out of society.

I gave up Christmas, choosing to ignore the trappings and trimmings, to forget the stress and busy-ness.  And then, just before Christmas, I realized I needed it, and my entire neighborhood rallied together to see that I would not miss Christmas.

I ran as a coyote across the Pacific Northwest.  My roommate works and plays after dark, and sleeps like the dead while the sun is up.  My mate leads his band of supernatural beings, and they protect each other and me.

I travelled in a ship powered by a human mind, and played chess with the most intellectually advanced person I’ve ever met.

I flew on the back of a dragon.  I bonded with tiny, winged lizards who flew around my head.  I listened to the greatest singer in the world sing and tell stories until his voice gave out, then listened to him again the next night.

I watched the rice grow in China, and I watched it die.  My family played and worked alongside me, and we loved our quiet life until the great famine.  We left for the city, and weren’t truly happy until we returned to our quiet home near the rice paddy.

Have you picked cotton?  Broken a gorgeous young colt?  Seen a baby come into the world?  Met someone who grew up on Mars?  Listened to the stories of Scheherazade?  If you haven’t, you should.  “These things are fun, and fun is good.” Dr. Seuss