Finding the Inner Gruff - Blog Off

As a toddler one of the first stories I read to my nephew was the Three Billy Goats Gruff. It was a fun read because I could animate my voice with all kinds of sounds and he was young enough to take great delight in it. The moral of the story is eat-me-when-I am-fatter. Which to tell you the truth I do not understand the message but will think about it.

My great-grandparents lived in Souris and a block away from Canada’s longest Swinging Suspension Bridge. As a way for us to entertain ourselves in the summer my cousins and I would always end up at the bridge. Inevitability the boys would get a head start and half way across they would start bouncing and swaying the bridge back and forth. And, we would in turn scream “Stop, stop, stop that right now!” It should be noted we were not very effective with that approach as their eyes would dance with great delight and go at it even harder. That hour was always pure torture but for whatever reason we would repeat the experience at every family gathering.

My take on the story of the Three Billy Goats Gruff is we all want to get to greener pastures. It is part of our life experience, evolution, and progression. Getting to the other side generally means there will be some kind of bridge we have to cross. Sometimes we do not make it because we just are not ready yet. Other times our fear is so great or the situation is so out of sync with our current understanding we burn it down. Secretly hoping that the desire to get to greener pastures will subside. But, it does not. Eventually you will have to build it and cross over. The lesson in my mind is the Three Billy Goats, did not think too much about the troll lurking underneath ready to eat them, they just came up with ways to cross. When the troll got too aggressive the bigger goat just gave him one big kick and poof he was gone.

In my life time I may have scorched the earth a time or two, three or four. Hmmm. The truth is that is okay. It was what it was and it happened for a reason. I still had some things to learn. And one of those things I learned as I was writing this piece is knowing that even though I am terrified of heights and falling I still managed to cross the Swinging Bridge despite the joyful efforts of my cousins – I just found my inner gruff to do it.

Aaron Pritchette has a catchy tune about a million wrong turns and undoing burned bridges. As you are listening to it, why not post a comment. Love to hear from you.

Why not take some time and head over to Busty's Blog at Bust-a-Blog and see what she wrote about the picture I sent her.