You turn to the slowdown for inspiring thought-provoking poetry and reflection.

As a public media program, we turn to our community for support.

Visit slowdown Show.org

slash donate to give today.

I'm Major Jackson and this is the slowdown. Once, as a child, I broke off from my parents and became lost at the Tennessee County Fair. I look for my family everywhere. In the sky

where the Ferris wheel turned like a giant clock, in the shaded overhang of crashing bumper cars, in the line of people at the ringtoss,

where giant plush animals hung from a booth's ceiling.

Everywhere I walked, I kept bumping into a forest of adults and children eating cotton candy.

I remember wishing I could just whistle and have everyone freeze, have the carnival noise go quiet and hear my parents calling for me.

I often brag about possessing an inner Magellan, an ability to navigate to a destination

without aid.

Truth is, I have a history of getting lost.

At the McDowell Artist Retreat, on the first night, I could not find my way through the woods

to the main hall for dinner. For the better part of an

hour, I ran through the yards of neighboring homes. Then there was that Halloween when my son and I kept circling back to the same location

in a haunted corn maze in Vermont. It was near the closing time. We were terrified by the thought of being imprisoned

through the night and the dense labyrinth of stalks and haybells.

Recorded screams and cries increased out fear.

Eventually, a lithe tall teenager in black clothes appeared and guided us back.

When lost, truth is,

someone always rescued me from my disorientation.

Today's poem reminds me that we are a single body, reliant on each other to find our way.

...