DAYDREAMS
You probably know how it feels to wake up, alone, on a cold winter morning. On one of those mornings, when the air was too white to look at, I put on my boots and my coat and stepped outside just as it began to snow. It was falling, not in icy crystals, but in big tufts, like something warm and comforting. I stretched out my arm, and a large, heavy snowflake fell into my hand. She was beautiful – full and white, but cold…
The Heart of the Snowflake
It was a really, really cold winter morning, full of loneliness and mind-blinding whiteness. In the middle of a meadow bloomed a beautiful Flower. Flowers, I’m sure you know, don’t bloom outside in the wintertime, especially when everything is covered in white. My Flower did bloom. She had a face of blue, a shimmering, radiant face. And a fragrance… I’d better not describe it to you, because the scent was utterly remarkable; it was a fragrance that had never before been carried by vapor through the air. The Flower was waiting for something!
Everyone who saw her azure face was stunned by her appearance, especially at a time when flowers are supposed to sleep. Winter was enraged.
“How dare this impudent weed break the rules,” she thundered. Angrily, she called for the Winter-wind.
“I want that flower gone,” Winter commanded.
Winter-wind maintained an army of snowflakes for times as these, when Winter became bitter, and now he summoned its leader, the whitest and coldest snowflake in the heavens, to his side.
“How can I help?” The Snowflake asked the Winter-wind.
“Winter is angry! In the middle of the meadow, a flower has bloomed, in defiance of Winter’s rules. In a few moments, I’ll begin to blow, and when I do you must fall to earth with your charge and freeze that disobedient flower!”
The Snowflake has heard about such flowers. The Snowflake had lived her life knowing that sometime soon she would fall to earth, and she had always hoped to see one of them. Among the snowflakes she was lonely. She felt the need to love and to be loved. But the strangest thing the Snowflake felt was the need for warmth. She wasn’t even sure what warmth was; she just had heard that the warmth would kill her. Now the time had come!
The Winter-wind blew her along with all the other snowflakes to the Earth. The Earth became frightened that the snowflakes would kill the beautiful Flower. So she called on the Spring-wind to protect her. The Spring-wind was surprised to be awakened so early. At first he didn’t believe he was strong enough to fight a Winter-wind but as he approached the field the scent of the Flower startled and energized him. Full of the Flower’s fragrance, the Spring-wind reached the whitest of white and coldest of cold Snowflake.
“What is that aroma?” the Snowflake asked the Spring-wind.
“It comes from the Flower” the Spring-wind answered, “the one you have come to kill!”
“I need to see that Flower!”
“She will be dead before you reach her because you have a cold heart.”
The Snowflake didn’t understand what he meant by a “cold heart,” but she knew she wouldn’t do anything to deprive the Earth of that fragrance which had so charmed her.
“What should I do?” the Snowflake asked.
“Only the Sun can help you. She has the rays to melt your heart. But after that you will die,” the Spring-wind hooted back.
“I don’t care! I want to see the Flower! Please help me, Spring-wind, to meet the Sun!”
The Spring-wind concentrated all his power and blew into the sky. His breath made a small hole in the clouds for the Sun.
“What do you want, Snowflake?”
“I don’t want to kill the Flower! I want to love and to be loved! Help me, please!”
The Sun gave her blessing.
“Here is the beam,” she said, and she hurled one ray of light through the hole in the clouds. For one moment the sky lit up and then the clouds turned black again. The beam of light pierced directly through the Snowflake’s heart into the Flower. And the thunder rolled!
“How beautiful she is!” the Snowflake gasped…
“How white she is!’ the Flower sighed, and the white vanished into a tear…
I looked into my hand. The heart of the Snowflake all warm and blue was lying in my palm.
It began to rain…
The Dream between Two Shells
Mussels, as you know, live beneath the surface of the sea. They can’t swim; they hardly even move. They are bound to the rocks that line the shores. The Mussel of our tale was special because her dream was to someday fly with the gulls. She knew how beautiful the white birds flying over the water were. She often watched them take other mussels flying but nobody ever saw these mussels again, so there was no one who could tell her what happened when the birds took their chosen mussels away. The Mussel kept dreaming about the flight.
“What are you waiting for?” the Mussel heard somebody say.
“I am waiting for the most beautiful flight,“ she answered as she opened her shell again to the birds.
“You know that the flight will kill you?” a voice very nearby said.
“I don’t care. I want to see everything and feel what it is like to fly.”
She was light-headed with her dream and didn’t want to hear anything ugly about life out of the sea.
Day after day the little Mussel dreamed. Day after day she opened her shell and showed her heart to the birds.
Suddenly something broke into water. A powerful force was lifting her from the bottom and then she was blinded!
“What is it?” she wandered but soon enough she realized that she had become the bird’s catch.
“I’m flying!”
When you go to the beach you can find a lot of shattered mussel shells. A little girl once found something sparkling in a cracked shell. It had been lying I the sun and felt warm in her hand.
“Mommy, see what I found!” she exclaimed. The girl held a pearl. It was shaped like a little heart.
The Kiss of the Sun
A long time ago Sun and Moon were together. They didn’t rise and they didn’t se, because Sun was very much in love with Moon.
The people on Earth didn’t know night from day because Sun and Moon were always together. This was a problem. They couldn’t sleep at night, and they couldn’t work during the day. They were confused, and always tired. So they decided to complain to their Creator. The people wanted Sun and Moon separated.
So the Creator, seeing the wisdom in this idea, granted the people their wish. Sun and Moon began to work at different times. They couldn’t see each other anymore. You know how hard it is when you in love, don’t you?
After several beautiful days, Sun had began to feel very tired without the love of Moon to sustain her. She might have been able to continue overlooking her sadness, but on this morning, she saw two people lying together in the forest. They were in love, she knew. And she also knew that the arrangement would not work. She wanted immediately to see her lover, Moon. She felt herself burning all over. The heat was so high that the grass turned brown, the leaves on the trees began to fall, and the earth began to shrivel.
Sun was upset. The only one who could help to avoid the calamity was Moon. But how could he appear? Moon was forbidden to show his face during the daytime.
The people, the animals, all of nature were starving without water and no one knew how to help Sun. Finally, the Willow remembered the Nightingale, whose song always lulled Sun to sleep and awakened Moon. Maybe she could help?
But, of course, the Nightingale would be sleeping during the day. Who would be able find her? The Willow called the Frog.
“Can you croak, Frog, so the Nightingale will awaken and sing her song?”
The Frog was thirsty indeed, so he agreed. He began to croak, loudly, and the Nightingale awakened.
“Could you please sing your song for Sun? We cannot sleep, we cannot work, we do not have any water anymore!”
It was hard for the Nightingale to begin to sing because her throat was dry without the water, too. So the Willow wept a few drops to coax the Nightingale’s song along, and the Nightingale was able to begin tacitly.
Luckily, Moon heard the Nightingale’s song and peeked over the horizon. And when he did, a miracle happened! Su fell into Moon’s arms. Her light was eclipsed and darkness came to Earth! Everyone was scared.
“We can’t live without Sun in the dark! Everyone will die!”
The Nightingale, too, sang the song of fear. It was the most beautiful song the Nightingale ever sung. Moon and Sun looked at Earth.
“I love you so, but I can’t let everybody die,” whispered Sun to Moon. “I will send you my kisses every night, my love.”
The people were so grateful that they asked the Creator to let Sun and Moon be together once a year. At that time, high up in the Polar Regions, the night is white. And every month, when you see a full moon, you’ll know that Sun is kissing her lover.
But once in a lifetime you can see how deep Sun’s love is for Moon. Then, for just a few moments, darkness comes to Earth. All living things still know fear, and only the Nightingale can sing her song to Moon and Sun.
Goodnight.