Bedtime Story (21/2/2018)

Today, as is my general wont, I've been overthinking various situations in my life.  Even as a 35 year old adult, there are many things I simply don't understand - and probably never will!  So, I started thinking about just how confusing the world can be and realised it's doubly so when you're a child.  That's where this story came from.  Hope you and your little ones enjoy it!

You can click here to listen to this story as a podcast.

The World Is SO Confusing!

All was quiet in Jacob's room;

His parents couldn't hear a peep.

But although he lay, tucked up in bed,

Jacob was not asleep.

A million questions were in his head,

Keeping him wide awake.

Jacob needed to find some answers,

No matter how long that might take.

He scrambled from the duvet

And gazed up at the black sky.

He watched clouds move past the moon

And the stars, so way up high.

"The world is so confusing,"

Jacob whispered to himself.

"I can't find answers anywhere,

Not in all the books on my shelf!"

He took a long and very deep breath,

And decided to ask out loud

All of the questions that kept him from sleep

To the sky and the moon and the clouds.

"Can you cry underwater?

And if chocolate is made from beans,

Does that make it a vegetable?"

Came Jacob's questioning pleas.

"And if my grandparents are called 'old people',

Why aren't kids called 'new people' too?

And were staircases built to go up or go down?

These are my questions to you!"

"Why doesn't cat food come in mouse flavour?"

Jacob asked the world, as he warmed to his theme.

"And if you're in bed, tucked up at night,

Can you still daydream?"

"What do you call a female daddy-long-legs?

Why is the third hand on my watch called the second hand?!"

Jacob rubbed his head and frowned at the sky.

"There's so much I don't understand."

"Like, how do you know when you run out of invisible ink?

Why is a boxing ring square?!

What do sheep count when they can't sleep?

Can you get nits if you have no hair?!"

But as he stared at the moon and stars,

In Jacob's mind, a thought had begun:

Perhaps not knowing all of these things

Was what made life such fun?!

After all, a mystery keeps us wondering.

Staying curious is good for your brain!

A smile crept across Jacob's lips, 

As he leant against the window pane.

He may never know all the answers

To the questions in his head.

"But I'll keep asking, anyway,"

A sleepy Jacob said.

But from that day on, it was okay not to know

The answers to every question through history.

Jacob was content to wonder and dream,

Enjoying all of life's mysteries.

THE END