Why the Fungus

     I was helping my daughter with her Composition homework years ago. The assignment was to come up with your own poems. She was having trouble understanding the difference between the different type of poems.  I believe she got started on her homework about 10pm and was still at it at 11pm. This was a late night for us and I was very tired. I knew that she needed help, so I pulled up my bootstraps and dove in to help her. 

I don't really see myself as a creative person, so I knew that in order for me to help her I would need God's help. So, I prayed and set to help her by some examples. I was very giddy and silly. Needless to say, it was a very unusual night. She saw a side of me I don't believe she had seen of me til then, and she was a bit surprised. We had so much fun laughing at our silliness. It was a night she still remembers some 10 to 15 years later. (That's what happens to me when I get really tired.)

Out of that night, came The Fungus Among Us!!! poem and a few others. I guess it would not be nice to tell the story without showing the results. So here is the poem I wrote that night.

The Fungus Among us!!!

Lend your ear this way

for I have a little something to say.

Though it may not be it,

This is the way I see it.

You can share yourself,

or tell me the way you view it.

Even still you'll only know I knew it.

Even though you know I knew it,

we both began to lose it.

But to lose it was only to gain it.

For this, I felt there was no need to blame it,

on the fungus among us!

When I think back about that night, there are so many things I can learn.

One thing for certain is that it is ok to have fun and not be so serious about everything. Granted there are times when seriousness is even a necessity, it is also necessary to be relaxed and enjoy life. That night, I had been so busy to accomplishing so many things and staying on task that, it was a perfect reminder. Not to get too busy trying to move things forward that we forget to enjoy where we are until we get to where we are going.

We can get so busy with work, schedules, and providing for our families that we forget to slow down and see the people we are working so diligently for. We can make provision, then suddenly they are gone, on their own, beginning their lives and we don’t even know them. It is better to value the person as they are growing and be able to participate in their growth. Remember we can learn from those younger than us as well as those who are in a different place in their lives as well.

So that is where the name came from.