You Are Not Late

Honey For The Heart - 17

In the middle of Whispering Woods, time made itself a nest; right on Bumble’s shoulder. And Bumble’s heart curled up inside it, like a tiny fledgling, restless, and feathered with worry.

He looked up, doing sums in his head.
“If I get my bakery going by year’s end, and find a cinnamon-sweet bear with honey-warm eyes, maybe there’s still time to start a family, next year. Maybe… if I hurry, I can still jump on the wagon.”

Piggy didn’t interrupt. He simply pulled out a thread and began stringing wild berries into a bracelet.

“I just feel,” Bumble said, “like I’m running behind a train that everyone else caught years ago.”

Piggy held up the half-finished bracelet. “Do you know,” he said, “that fireflies don’t care when the sun sets? They bring their own light.”

Bumble looked unconvinced.

“The world may have loud clocks,” Piggy said, “but the tree-folk say…roots grow before anything blooms. No one claps for roots… but nothing stands without them.”

Bumble exhaled.
“What does that even mean?”

Piggy glanced up at a duck-shaped cloud.
“Bumble, trees don’t rush to rise,
rivers don’t race to reach the sea,
even the sun takes time waking up.
Real time doesn’t tick, it moves.”

“Moves?” Bumble echoed.

“Yes. In breath and moments!
When you chase fireflies,
When you dance like no one’s watching,
When you sit next to your love, and your heart forgets a beat…”

“The point isn’t to catch up, Bumble, it’s to catch moments.”

Then he added, “You know what I once learned from an old pinecone?
Not all seeds bloom in spring. Some take longer. That doesn’t make their bloom less beautiful.”

Bumble sighed. “But the world doesn’t wait.”

Piggy nodded. “No, it doesn’t.
But who decides you’re late?
Does the sky rush the moon?
Do forests hurry a bud?
It’s not about being first… it’s about being ready.”

He tied the finished bracelet around Bumble’s paw.
“These moments- quiet, real, honest…they map true time.”

The wind shifted. A dandelion broke free.
In that suspended moment, even Time had to agree…
Some dreams took the long road.
That’s how they arrived whole.