WILL CHANGES HIS LIFE

by Andrew Marr, OSB

Once upon a time there was a boy named Will. Will and his family lived in a house at the edge of town and at the edge of the forest. One day, Will came home from school, drank a glass of milk, ate more cookies than he could count, and then walked out of the house in the direction of the forest.

"Will!" Will's mother called out. "Where are you going?"

"I'm going into the forest for a little while."

"Just be sure you're back in time to do your chores before dinner!"

"I will!" Will yelled back.

But Will had no intention of being back home in time to do any chores. Will was sick and tired of doing chores around the house and he was sick and tired of doing school work. Will was also sick and tired of being sick and tired of everything. This day, he was going to do something about it.

One of the things Will most liked to do when he walked into the forest was watch the squirrels. He loved to watch them run up and down trees and scurry along the branches. He loved to watch them chew up one nut after another with the frantic movements of their furry cheeks. But this time, Will was going to do more than just look at the squirrels. He wanted to run up and down the trees himself and scurry along the branches. That beat doing chores and school work anytime.

"Turn right when you pass the twelfth tree," Will said to himself.

Having counted twelve trees, Will turned right. These were the instructions given him over the phone when he called the number listed in the Yellow Pages under the subject: Change Your Life. After turning right, Will counted off twelve more trees and then turned left. The instructions took him along a stream and deeper into the forest than he had ever gone before. He would never be back home in time to do his chores, but that was the way Will wanted it.

At last, Will came to old oak tree that had an old weather-beaten sign over its door that read: Change Your Life Enterprises. Will knocked on the door and the door opened. With his heart beating excitedly, Will stepped into the dimly lit hollow of the tree. There, Will saw an old bearded man who looked as if he himself had turned into a tree.

"Have you come to change your life?" the old man asked Will in a voice deeper than the earth.

"Oh yes!" Will replied. "I'm sick and tired of doing chores and doing school work."

"What would you like to be?"

"I want to be a squirrel and run up and down trees and scurry along the branches all day."

"Are you sure?"

"Of course I'm sure."

"DONE!" the old man rumbled.

Will's stomach lurched as he plunged to the ground. He felt something swish behind him and then realized it was his tail. With a quick movement, Will turned around and shot out of the tree house faster than a bullet. Up the nearest tree Will ran and along the nearest branch Will scurried. Then he stuck a paw into the hollow of the tree, took out a nut, and chopped it up in his little teeth.

"This beats doing chores and doing school work," Will said to himself, except that Will could no longer say the words he was thinking.

For several days, Will had the time of his life, running up and down trees, collecting nuts and chewing them up and making friends with the other squirrels. But then Will found himself wishing that he could trade baseball cards with the other squirrels or play soccer with them. But he couldn't because the other squirrels didn't know anything about baseball or soccer and Will couldn't talk and explain it to them and they wouldn't have understood him if he could have talked with his squirrel's tongue.

And so, after a few more days, Will stopped running up and down the trees so much and started looking up into the sky more often. Up above, hawks flew majestically through the air. Will got to thinking about how much fun it would be to fly above the forest and the town and look down at everybody. Then Will decided to do something about it.

Squirrels don't have Yellow Pages the way people do, but when squirrels want to change their lives, they know what to do just as instinctively as they know how to find nuts and store them. And so Will scurried from one tree to another without bothering to think about where he was going until he came to the right tree. This time, there was no door to knock on and so he slipped into the hollow of the tree where he came face-to-face with a wise old squirrel.

"How do you want to change your life?"

The question seeped into Will's bones and the answer rose up from his bones.

"I want to be a hawk."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure."

"Are you more sure than you were when you wanted to be a squirrel?"

"Oh yes!"

"DONE!"

Without warning, Will's shoulders hit the ceiling in the hollow of the tree and he had to push himself hard to get out. He tried to grip the branch with his squirrel feet but didn't know how to use the feet he had, and so he fell off. Before he realized what he was doing, Will found himself flapping his wings and rising up above the tree where he could look down on the whole forest.

For the next several days, Will flew over the forest, swooped down on mice that he spotted and made a meal of them, and then flew over the forest some more. He made friends with the other hawks and they flew around in circles together having the time of their lives. But then Will got to thinking that although he could fly over one shopping mall after another with the hawks, he couldn't go shopping at any of them because nobody would do business with a hawk, and he couldn't hang around the mall and tell jokes about his teachers because his beak wasn't very good for telling jokes.

As Will flew in circles over the forest and over the town for several more days, he took notice of the stream that runs through the forest. Deep down in the water, he saw fish swimming all the time. Another problem with being a hawk was that he couldn't swim. And so, bored with flying in the air all the time, Will decided to change his life once more.

He flew over trees and more trees of the forest and further along the stream than he had ever flown until he landed in the branches of the tree that his instinct told him was the right tree. There, nestled deep in the branches, perched a wise old hawk. The wise old hawk looked at Will with bright eyes that stood out against his face and the dark tree.

"How do you want to change your life?" the hawk asked in a voice created by the wind.

"I want to be a fish that swims deep in the water," Will answered, the wind carrying his answer.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

"Are you more sure than you were when you wanted to be a squirrel and when you wanted to be a hawk?"

"Oh yes," said Will.

"DONE!"

Will slipped about on the branch helplessly, suddenly having no paws, no wings and no feet that could grab a hold of anything. And so he fell out of the tree and splashed into the stream.

For the next several days, Will swam from one end of the stream to the other. He nibbled on frogs and worms and wondered why he hadn't appreciated these delicacies before. He made friends with all the other fish and they all swam together from one end of the stream to the other.

But a few days later, Will was tired of swimming from one end of the stream to the other. He wanted to play water polo with the other fish, but they didn't seem to understand any other games except swimming for the sake of swimming. Will wanted to write funny e-mail letters to his friends but there were no computers under water and even if there were, his fins would not have been any good for typing. Finally, as Will thought about playing soccer and trading baseball cards and hanging out at the mall and shopping for goofy things and playing water polo and writing funny e-mails, Will began to think that doing school work and doing chores at home wasn't so bad when he could do all those other things too.

And so Will swam down to the deepest part of the stream where the Wise Old Salmon rested on the bottom. The Wise Old Salmon looked at Will with eyes that pierced right through him and snorted.

"How do you want to change you life?" the Wise Old Salmon asked him, a trail of bubble floating between him and Will.

"I want to be a boy again, like I was before," said Will, sending more bubbles floating between him and the Wise Old Salmon.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure."

"Are you more sure than you were when you wanted to be a squirrel and when you wanted to be a hawk and when you wanted to be a fish?"

Will could hardly see the Wise Old Salmon for all the bubbles.

"Yes, I'm very, very sure."

"DONE!"

Suddenly, Will felt a sharp chill and found himself lying in the grass, his sopping clothes sinking into his skin. He lay where he was until his clothes started to dry a little and he was used to breathing through his mouth and nose. Then he slowly pulled himself to his feet and began to walk along the stream in the direction of his house and the town he lived in.

As Will walked, thinking of all the things he would do that he hadn't done for many days, he passed by a boy who was walking into the forest, headed straight to the tree where his own adventures began.