A Cheshire Challenge

My 11-year-old nephew played the Cheshire Cat in a staged reading of Alice in Wonderland last week.

The whole piece is a magically bizarre, non-linear… well, adventure.
Talking flowers. Crying doorknobs. A perpetually late rabbit (he has a very, very un-birthday to attend!).

But the Cat.
The Cheshire Cat.
He’s always been my favorite.
(Enzo was well cast, I must say.)

This exchange between Alice and the Cat is often framed as a cautionary tale:

But I don’t think that’s the whole story.

Alice asks for direction.
And the Cat, unlike the other “adults” in her world, doesn’t give it.
He flips the question back.

To which Alice replies:
“I don’t much care where.”

(Right on, Alice!)

And yet. Even in a world with nowhere to go and nothing to do…she still asks:
Where should I go?
What path should I take?

Don’t Rush the Shape

Not everything needs a destination.
Some things are meant to be wandered through.
followed, felt, unfolded.

And for the things that do have somewhere to go,
isn’t it often true that the best ideas illuminate their own path forward?

When we grab for structure too soon,
we risk suffocating the very thing we’re trying to bring to life.
We trade originality for order.
We force clarity before it’s ready.

But if we can hold just a little more space…
if we can wait long enough for the shape to reveal itself…
we might just let the work become what it was meant to be.

So maybe the point isn’t to always know where we’re going.
But to keep going. Until the direction reveals itself.

To say:

To wandering,
Mary

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