Today, I wrote a magical story, below, for Rosalie, my new granddaughter. It contains the values I hope she and every other human on this planet will come to hold, the value of all creatures and all persons of all kinds from all places. May we fly together and shout, “Yay!”
Wherever Rosalie went magic happened.
“Yay!” Rosalie yelled.
Rosalie’s mom took her to the ocean. They sat on a bench overlooking the beach. Her mom held Rosalie in her arms.
“Yay!” shouted Rosalie.
And suddenly Rosalie became a blue and pink whale wearing a soft, silver beanie cap. She looked at her mom. She was a bright orange whale. They swam together through a swarm of tasty treats.
“Yay,” she and her mom both cheered as Rosalie took big yummy bites.
The next day, Rosalie’s dad took her to the zoo.
They went to the elephant exhibit.
“Yay!” Rosalie shouted, and the next instant she turned into a bright orange elephant. She looked over at her dad. He was now a bright yellow elephant.
“Yay!” Rosalie tooted through her trunk, and suddenly she wore a blue blanket, bright yellow ear dangles and a red cap.
“Yay!” shouted Rosalie and she rose into the sky — trunk-in-trunk with her dad — and they flew above the animal enclosures.
And all the creatures of the zoo, black leopards, yellow giraffes, brown bears and striped zebras waved and cheered.
The next day Rosalie stayed home. But that evening as the sun set, her Papa grandpa took her by the hand and led her into the backyard.
“Look,” her Papa Grandpa said, and he pointed at a bright point of light beside a crescent moon.
“It’s the planet Venus,” said Papa.
“Yay!” said Rosalie and she and Papa suddenly turned into spaceships and floated up into the sky. They sailed past the silver moon, circled Mars and rocketed on toward the cloud swirlies of Jupiter and the golden rings of Saturn.
“Yay,” yelled Rosalie and Papa as they surged toward Pluto.
The next day her grandma took her to the library.
“Yay,” whispered Grandma and Rosalie in their special library voices.
And they sat together in the library and read books about people paddling in canoes in a far off places.
“Yay,” yelled Rosalie and suddenly she and her grandma were in a canoe. And as grandma paddled it along, its paddles became wings, and it lifted into the air and flew out over the big, blue-green world. And they flew to far off places, and everywhere they went, they stopped and made new friends.
“Yay!” their new friends shouted with them.
The next day, Rosalie’s whole family got together, and while dinner was being made her aunt sat with her on the couch.
“Tell me a story,” said Rosalie.
“Okay,” said her aunt. “Once there was a little girl named Rosalie, and she loved to yell, ‘Yay!’ And whenever Rosalie yelled ‘Yay!’ wonderful and magical things happened.”
“Yay!” yelled Rosalie and her aunt. By now everyone who loved Rosalie knew to yell “Yay!”
And suddenly Rosalie and her aunt and her mom and her dad and her papa and her grandma flew out of the window into the bright blue sky.
And holding hands, they soared out over the bright blue-green earth.
“Yea” her whole family shouted.
And looking back Rosalie saw a zoo full of yelling animals and a canoe full of yelling friends flying up to join them. And they all shouted, “Yay!”
Then around and around the earth they all went, Rosalie leading the way, the planets trailing behind them like the tail of a kite.
“YAY!”
Thrive! 