Steven and His Little Red Boat

By Tim Law

Once upon a time there was a man named Steven. He had a little red boat that he would launch each night from his own personal jetty and he would sail his boat around the world.

“Tell me your stories so that I can then share them,” Steven would say to all the people he met as he sailed his little red boat.

Some people turned up their nose at such a request.

“Why would we share with you our innermost thoughts and our creativity?” they would ask of the man in the little red boat.

“Because a shared story is one that can open hearts and minds, heal the broken and inspire greatness,” Steven would say in reply.

On the rarest of occasions some of those sceptics would find their minds and hearts opened, their brokenness fixed and from them would come a greatness that they never knew was there. Others would still refuse, keeping their inner thoughts locked away and sadly sometimes those thoughts were never shared.

Sometimes Steven would discover in his travels a great need. A woman who had lost a child would receive from the man in the little red boat a handful of memories that would sooth her heart. A little cat that had run away from home would discover that Steven had room in his boat for two and somehow he knew just where to find the child in the night who desperately called “Kitty… Kitty… Please come home…”

Steven had a sense of what was right and his little red boat would take him each and every night across the waters or through the clouds to the places and people that needed him the most. Steven would listen to stories and smile. He kept them all in his heart and remembered each and every word, prepared to share those stories with permission of course wherever and whenever the time was right.

But who was watching out for Steven? Who was there to fix his little red boat if there was a hole in the hull or a tear in the sail’s canvas? Who was there to sooth Steven’s aching heart and mind full of worries when things became too much? All around the world Steven had made many friends and those friends had many friends who knew of Steven and the wonderful way that he and his little red boat would night after night ever so slowly heal the world and comfort it at its times of sadness. These were the people who helped Steven when it was that he asked for help. It was the friends and the friends of friends and those people that were known and loved by those friends.

One by one Steven and his little red boat connected us all. One by one we all felt a little more whole. One by one we all discovered that we each had stories to share. One by one those stories were told. And it was all thanks to that man named Steven and his little red boat.