Son of Mars

Once upon a place
The pond was not deep that day. Indeed it had been shallow for some time. But most of the pond dwellers didn't mind - it was just the way things were
For instance, the turtles were quite happy as long as they had water enough to swim around in. They even liked to bask their shells in the sun as they topped the surface, with the water being just so. Great for the cranes, too. They liked how the shallow water made it easy to bob in for something tasty. The fish didn't complain either - being closer to the surface made it easier to seize a floating munchie
Truth to tell, for the inhabitants of the pond, there was contentment enough to go around, never a grumble or a whisper of complaint. Most ook to spending average days living out average lives without too much moodiness
Most, but not all
Ping was a frog, but more than that, he was a frog with a proud heritage, even though he had no memory of it. He didn't know, for example, that the ancients in China believed that frogs came from the moon, hatching from eggs that fell from the sky with the silver rain. Oh, he could go hiking back in his own time, remembering his earliest days at the pond, before he had arms and before he had legs, remembering what it was like to joyously zoom through the deep water, propelled by his tail
And when he was older and there was jumping to be done, nothing pleased him more. Ping was an incredibly gifted jumper, the best at going the distance
In one hop, Ping perfectly sailed nine feet - correction, sorry - nine feet three inches, an unbeatable record. Such was the remarkable talent of Ping the frog that all the denizens of the pond would stop whatever the were doing to watch when Ping jumped. They felt privileged to witness such glory.
Ping thought nothing of it. All he knew was that jumping great distances was terrific fun and that now, sadness of sadness, there was no good jumping at the pond anymore. Not with the water nearly gone.
Which brings us to the point that in order to live a life of grace beyond gravity you have to have two things. First, you have to have a strong desire to live your best life, and second, you have to have the will and willingness to live it each and every day

Ping had both

What he didn't have was water. And Ping needed water to jump in


(To be continued ....)
-------------------Author: Stuart Avery Gold