Three-toed Sloth

In the jungle of gently drooping vines,
where sunlight drips in lazy lines,
lives Gary, the sloth: a serene little sage,
who takes roughly three hours
to turn a single page;

Who hangs from from a branch with enlightened ease
and sways ever softly in the midday breeze,
as pilgrims arrive from far and from near
to ask him those questions of life
most unclear.

'Master Gary,’ they whisper,
'How might we find peace?
How may we stop worrying,
our stresses might cease?'

And Gary blinks slowly,
his eyes all aglaze
(he’s been thinking of blinking
for several days).

Then he speaks in a voice
with velveteen gravity,
'My children… slow down…'
he proclaims from the canopy.

'You’re moving too fast,
you’re doing too much -
you must approach life
with a delicate touch.’

'Time is not for beating,
it keeps pace with you,
thus your moments are fleeting
if you’re fleeting, too.’

‘If you’re rushing to the finish,
Then you must have it wrong.
The joy is the journey,
and the journey
should
b e
l o n g.

‘But if move you must,
then you should adhere -
to avoiding any more progress
beyond one inch each year.’

For weeks, pilgrims listen
to Gary’s wise advice ,
and not one of them petitions
that it might be more concise.

And so when it comes that they leave
their spirits are aglow
with their newly learned life lessons
of how to take it slow.

At home, they breathe in deeper,
they sigh a fair bit more,
they try to spread the message
of their three-toed sloth mentor.

‘He’s a guru; he’s a mystic;
he’s the slow-lane’s final boss.
He moves through life
so expertly slow,
he’s began to gather moss.’

So if you seek a life serene,
well then, you’re in luck
because Gary’s written a brand new book,
called ‘How to Come Unstuck.’

You can pick it up from the Amazon
You’ll just have to wait some time
’cause he ships it from the Jungle
where there’s no such thing as Prime.