Hagakure

Biggest at the Top

The big slide is so high.
My tummy feels funny.
My feet do not want to go.

That is the scared feeling.
It is biggest at the top.

It says, don’t. Not now. Maybe later.
But the scared feeling is not the boss.

So I hold on tight.
And I go.

Whoosh!

And the scared feeling? Halfway down, it gets small.
Much smaller than it was at the top.

The scared feeling is biggest at the top.
So I go anyway.

Lots of things feel big at the top.
The first day of school.
The deep end of the pool.
A big dark room.

Every time, the scared feeling comes first.
Every time, it is biggest right before.

You do not have to make it go away.
You do not have to feel brave.
You just hold on tight —
and go.

Say it with me: biggest at the top.
So I go anyway.

I went down the big slide.
Maybe I will laugh.
Maybe my knees will still shake.
Either way, I did the hard thing.

Tomorrow there is a new big slide.
And I will hold on tight,
and go.

---

A note for the grown-up

For the grown-up reading aloud: This little story comes from a fierce old Japanese book called Hagakure, dictated by a samurai about 300 years ago. His real idea was that fear is worst right before you act — that looking straight at what scares you makes it shrink. The fuller book is most famous for a much bigger, darker claim about being ready to die, one that was later used to push young men into war. That part is not here, and is not for children. What’s here is the small true piece a child can carry: the scared feeling is biggest right before — and you can go anyway.