There was once a fresh stick of gum. She was selected out of the pack of her gum family at just the right time. With a pocket stuffed with promises. Full of flavor and natural color, she brought joy and pleasure to her environment – filling the place with mouthwatering pleasantries. But far sooner than she thought, things started to fade. She was losing her sweetness and turning grey. It’s strange how that always seems to happen – the deep feeling of what was once unshakable, beginning to collapse.

Before she even had a chance to plead her case, believe it or not, she was spewed onto the sidewalk in a slick saliva stream! Chewed up and spit out, her purpose was gone. Everything she hoped her life would be was lost. All the places she hoped to go, she would never reach. Not now. Not without that long-legged giant to carry her.

“What could come from a discarded, mushy lump of gum on a filthy sidewalk?” she said, asundered… “I know!” she exclaimed. “I will try to roll over to the grass and maybe a momma bird living in the tree will pick me up! I could be used to make a nest for her baby birds! How lovely that would be!” However, she soon learned she couldn’t move at all. Try as she might, the hot sun had bonded her lumpy body to the concrete. She was stuck, and couldn’t do anything about it. Her voice was too small and tiny to call out for help in such a big world. The noise of the city drowned it out.

But before thoughts of self deprecation could completely paralyze her, a large, red sneaker cast a shadow, blocking out the sun, and came down on her head. She had been stepped on! And what’s more, her gorgeous lumps were embedded in the sole of the shoe! With each step, the vehicle she unwillingly rode smooshed and smashed, until she became sick. If she had a stomach and had eaten lunch earlier, she would have hurled all over! But alas, all the things she wasn’t and all the things she couldn’t do, brought her back to the same place of hopelessness. At least she was on the move now. Forward movement is always good. And she had a feeling her story was far from over…

The cherry-red high tops, laced with fresh, white shoe strings, uncomfortably transported her a couple more blocks before departing from the sidewalk and up the stairs of a brick building. The human occupant kicked off its sneakers in the doorway. The shoe our sticky friend had unceremoniously been plastered to for the past hour, (I think it was the left one if I remember right) had toppled over revealing her in her unwanted hitchhiking state. It wasn’t long before she was noticed by the mother, (moms always seem to notice things like that). The towering female stooped down, and after issuing an angry warning at the young owner of the shoe, proceeded to scrape the bottom on the concrete doorstep.

Like some crude, violent procedure, the wad of gum known as Gum Wad was subjected to excruciating unpleasantness I’d rather not describe to you. I’ll only tell you how, upon finally being noticed again, that fleeting hopeful moment vanished before her mushy brain could comprehend what was happening. Her emotional, and quite frankly, physical roller coaster ended with her being tossed through the air on a hot, summer afternoon, and landing her in a grimy puddle on the street.

Amongst trashy gravel and other riffraff – burger wrappers, a single sock, weird sewer gunk – our dear friend, Gum Wad, was nearly in tears at her predicament. “This is by far the worst Tuesday of my wretched life!” She cried out. After asking for a quick death at the hands of whatever god was listening, she gave up and began spiraling into despair.

Over time, she soaked up the dirty water she splashed about in helplessly. No one came for her. Not even a glance from the passersby. The day slowly burned away, every tick of time feeling like a sharp jab to her morale. The exposed half of her lumps above the waterline began to turn hard and grow bitter. She let herself become a product of her environment. “I am just a collection of simple ingredients. A dumb, chewy, glob of sugar junk. Even if I was still being chewed, all I’m good for is causing cavities. I am a disease in the mouth of the world.”

She looked down at her reflection in the muddy puddle, her existential crisis expressed in the bumpy rolls of her face. “Life is unkind, at the best of times,” she remembers hearing once. But those lyrics triggered a helpful thought – sometimes all you can do in defiance of unfavorable circumstances, is sing. So her squishy heart gathered up its dark thoughts and let the remaining light transform the grey into a daring, hopeful color:

“What is my life? How did it come to this?” She sighed to herself. “I’m not sure, but all great stories have dark, confused times – when promises seem empty and there’s nothing to hold on to…” Cherishing the momentary reprieve, she decided to call her little ramble: The Truth of Adventure.

With that settled, she analyzed her reality in a light that made her feel more capable to change her situation. Was it the power of song? Or perhaps it was the power of creating something beautiful in the face of oppression. Even if the struggle was mostly in her mind.

“I’m not crazy,” she declared to herself, and to the opened bag of potato chips that had inched closer during her song. “I feel alone too,” the crunchy bag crinkled, offering a small, knowing smile. He began to ask, “Would you like some chip…” before being rudely cut off by a gust of wind, sweeping him away from the puddle that had become their home.

Staring in disbelief as her seconds-old friend was carried off on a journey of his own, his story taking him elsewhere, Gum Wad screamed, “Holy Shiiii….” but the last syllable was drowned out by a passing car hitting the puddle. A tidal wave of crap-brown water rose four inches above her unkempt head of hair (which was nothing more than a collective effort by bellybutton lint) and splashed her further up the pavement. Soaked, waterlogged, and incredibly pissed off, little Gum Wad resigned herself to the elements, effectively surrendering her life to whatever unfortunate event would attack her next.

“Come what may. I am finished.” Everything and everyone had abandoned her, or been cruelly ripped from her life. Like a plastic bag full of holes, Gum Wad was without a hint of purpose. The glimmer, the glamor, her dreams – gone. And so, the soggy, slump girl wept. Heartache became heartbreak. And if you saw that sad lump on the street, you would fall to your knees and weep with her. Two lonely hearts in a mad world.

Just as she was about to erupt in a fury that would likely destroy her small world, Gum Wad’s little limp body was lifted off the ground to an approximate height of three foot three. But after all the unfortunate things that happened that day, she didn’t even bother to open her eyes, but instead, just sighed one last time. Gum Wad had turned down the volume on life, letting the noises become muffled. She didn’t see the small boy, whose hand held her, smile with delight. But she could feel it, like the dawn of a day she thought would never come. Supreme relief brought on by a satisfying smile. She opened her eyes. And what she beheld would leave an imprint on her heart for an endless age. No words could ever touch what she saw in that little kid’s eyes.

Now, one would probably scold a boy who picks up chewed gum from the ground and puts it in his mouth, but this was no normal boy. Although he stood just three foot three, the boy was the tallest man to ever live. With a wink, this boy of wonder popped Gum Wad into his mouth. Like diving headfirst into the fresh waters of an oasis, like finding a lush urban garden in the middle of a city, like reaching out and grasping a shooting star to be lifted off the planet and taken across galaxies with the rush of eternity – like going supernova it was – all this was experienced in simply travelling from his hand to his mouth. Across that distance, all of that and so much more, was felt.

He didn’t care she was filthy. It didn’t matter where she had been, or what had happened to her, or even what she had done. He would savor her forever. The boy was just happy she was there. Just being alive. Her emotional range had taken her heart to the deepest depths, however – “Deep calls to deep.” Warmth like the rising sun began to seep through every shadow surrounding her heart. The flavor she thought was long gone started to gush out of her once more in an endless spring from an eternal place. Her flavor, the only of its kind – her purpose – began to return afresh in powerful, refining waves that made her face flush with color.

The work the boy does, the business Gum Wad was involved in, chosen for, was not simply to set her back on her lumpy feet. It was the hand of redemption, bringing about a creative work from the depths of hearts that connect with the deeper depths of the Creator Himself. Where light dances and intertwines across time in a wide, open space, where to move is to soar and to feel is to be infinite. All in a swell. All with a glance and a smile. Just a wink.

Gum Wad blinked. And that wondrous scene was gone. Had she imagined it? Was any of it real? She found herself above the city, on an overlook with no fences or barriers. Perplexed and a little dazed with the tingle of power she still felt, Gum Wad scratched her head with… my God, she had hands! And beyond them, spread across the width of her was a set of wings! She looked around, jaw-dropped and flabbergasted. Where was the boy? He had set her on a path once marked by a sign that read – “Currently under construction” – but a sign of finer quality now stood in its place reading – “Transformation in progress.”

The boy had shattered her entire tiny universe and called her higher and deeper. Further up and further in, some would say. Realization began to spread across her squishy brain and she noticed she stood a little taller, a little straighter. Her body a little more slender, yet still beautifully decorated with bumps, lumps, and scars. Simple as she was, she was unquestionably substantial.

“This was good,” a voice said playfully. “But now I must go.” Gum Wad spun around in a stutter. And there he was before her. Or perhaps she was before him now. “Take me with you!” She pleaded. “I fear my heart is still sick.”

Without a word, the boy stepped to her. And lying down on his stomach, placing his hands underneath his chin to rest his head, eyes churning like a deep, galactic ocean – Gum Wad could have sworn the world stopped spinning. If she had knees, they would have wobbled and given out. But she didn’t topple over, his gaze held her fast. Drew her closer. Until their lips nearly touched. The air electric now. An atmosphere of light and energy.

“A promise unfulfilled doesn’t mean it’s empty.” The assurance with which he spoke cast all her doubts to a distant place far, far away. “I noticed you long ago. And I could not be more proud of what I see.” Tears filled her eyes. Her past said otherwise. But the shame couldn’t impede the cloudburst in her heart. A supergiant was emerging and no one could abort this new birth.

With the kind of wink native only to the One who connects all things, that masterful boy breathed Gum Wad into a bubble. Gifted her wings with flight. Internal wind currents, animating and lifting no matter the weather. “My breath I give to you. I am with you always.” Rising to new heights in an upside down world, what more could be said but, “Thank you.”

When you have tasted the flavor of freedom, you won’t crave anything else. When you’ve seen the whole world from great heights, like the soaring wad of gum you just read about, you will never want to come down.

Even to this day, when one takes a quiet stroll through the woods or rests their feet on a park bench, upon slowing down and taking the time to just be in this moment in history and listen, right when you need it most – you can hear a sweet, scratchy voice coming down from the clouds, riding a warm breeze that breaks across your face like a wisp of feathers. And it sings a new song learned only from traveling across star-flecked skies. It might be a series of haikus because she does that now. And honestly she doesn’t care what anybody has to say about it. She just asks herself, “What would a free bubble of gum do?” And then she does just that.

Dear Bubblegum,

I’ve heard stories of your exploits. Did you really do a back flip over an erupting volcano? I’m so proud. But far more so, I love who you are becoming.

When you feel alone and incapable of doing the task appointed you and think, “How can a little bubble get all the way up there?” When you say to yourself or to a bird or a tree or looking down into a bowl of soup, “Did I really get so lost that I ended up back in the same place?” Remember this – I don’t waste my breath. When I speak, there’s light, there’s life, and there you are. All of that wonder is inside of you.

Be kind to yourself. And hold on to Me.

Your Friend,

Love