"Climbing to Heaven" by Mattie Stepanek

 

I was meaning to share this poem after the shootings at Newtown. It was written by someone whose short life was full of tremendous courage and hope. If you haven't heard the name, "Mattie Stepanek", before...do yourself a favor and read a quick biography about him.

I profiled his mother, Jeni, last year during my Month of Courage. You can read my post here.

I have a few of Mattie's poems, I'd like to share with you, during this Month. They are all from his book of poetry entitled Journey Through Heartsongs that I randomly stumbled upon in the library. It never ceases to amaze me how books always find you.

Climbing to Heaven

In the winter, trees reach
Up to touch the sky.
Without their leaves,
The trees look like hands
And fingers stretching up
So, so, so high.
And if you look at the
Tallest tree in our backyard,
You can see that it is
So, so so close to Heaven.
Perhaps we could go out
And climb
Up the tree,
Up the hand,
Up the fingers,
And into the sky.
Then, we could just step
Through the clouds,
...And into Heaven.

                    -Mattie, January 1996


Mattie wrote these words when he was 6 years old. His life is an inspiration to all. An old soul, if there ever was one.