Once Upon a Niebling (a bedtime story for someone who has not yet woken up)
Once Upon a Time (which is when all the best things happened, a baby was born to a Boy and Girl.
(And if the Boy and Girl were secretly a King and Queen when they closed their doors and no one else was around, who can know? These things do happen in Fairy Tales, and also in True Love.)
This baby had been wanted for a great long time - in fact, the land was rather short on babies just then - and so there was much rejoicing, and many gifts were given. The baby had three Faery Aunties (and in fact may have had more Faery Aunts and Uncles, but there are three I know of and whose story I am telling you). These Aunties knew their Fairy Tales well, and dearly wanted to give the baby presents that would live up to the grand traditions.
Auntie Norda leaned over the baby and kissed its left cheek, and said, “I give you the gift of Books. You will be able to retreat into Books when life is hard and learn from them when life is confusing and tie your happy memories to them. As long as you life and wherever you go, Books will be a guide and a comfort that is never far from you.
(At this, Auntie Angha and Auntie Di said in perfect unison, “Aw, I wanted to give that!”)
Auntie Di took the baby’s tiny hand, marvelled at how tight it held on to her finger, kissed its dimply knuckles, and said “I give you the gift of Adventure. You will not let fear or habit keep you from making changes when change is needed. You have been born into a wide and wonderful world, and you will take the opportunities it offers you to try and learn, to see and do.”
(Auntie Angha muttered “There goes another one…”)
Auntie Angha kissed the baby on its dreaming forehead, nuzzled into the soft fuzz of its hair, and said “I give you the gift of passion. Sometimes it will feel like you are drowning in sorrows, but that will be nothing to the joys that will come to you, to the beauties that will make you weep, and to the intense love you will feel for some of the people, animals, places and things you meet in the world.”
The baby grew up, as babies do, and grew into its gifts as well as all the other ones its parents could give. As Once Upon a Time became A Time Not Too Far Away, the baby became a person who could read and think, do and dare, love and work and keep trying no matter what went wrong. And it turned out that was just the gift that the World was waiting for.
Mirrored from Dichroic Reflections.