Stories are at the center of everything. The most powerful and potentially debilitating being the ones inside our head. The stories we tell ourselves. The erosive stories we’ve been told. Stories formed from our experiences. That’s why it’s so vital we have access to and seek out alternative stories that give us strength and hope. Help us realise our full potential. Particularly our children and young people.
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Sometimes I Wish I Wasn’t Me .
This little soldier finally realised that being the fairest isn’t all it’s cracked up to be and looking up to stars can be dangerous – especially when they fall. And that ‘way up high’, ‘over the rainbow’ and ‘climbing the ladder’ are sometimes dangerous places to try and reach. And too far away to possibly get there on time.
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Once Upon A Dark Time …
…in a land of smiles, bad things happened. Children were broken into. Nothing said. Nothing done. And so the innocent grew, not up, but small. But this was not to be the end. In the darkness little helpers gathered spilling rich black into soft white sheets. Tailoring picture books to fill empty spaces. Telling truth that grew much taller than a world too big to fit. Until size no longer mattered and little souls were reawakened by the rhythms and rhymes of songs that carried them all the way home – ensuring they’d never be beaten again.
Footnote: This story (from 2014) reflects The Black Dog Project’s focus on the safety, well being and rights of children and young people – and the idea of making books and gifting them to young people in the community through sponsorship. Find in Clunk & Jam 2019 book. Original story in handmade book, ‘Rock The Boat’, 2009. Handwriting by Maggie).
Sometimes you have to find a way of separating the badness from your self .
There are so many of us who have been given a bad apple. It is the worst thing in the world to receive. Just like having a bad apple in your bag, it rots – eventually ruining everything. This little soldier has a story about ‘outing’ bad apples – and rising from the ruin …..
… Someone put a bad apple in her bag once, and although she was sure people could tell something was wrong, she didn’t show anyone the apple because it was so bad – and she worried it would make them feel bad too.
The little girl’s greatest fear became that if she ever took the bad apple out, or someone discovered it, they wouldn’t want her anymore. They’d think she was bad. She forever longed for someone to get rid of the bad apples for her.
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Imagine having wings on your feet….
You’d never be trodden on again. You’d be able to see exactly what was coming. Where you were going. And always have a safe place to fly up, up and away from it all.
Footnote: Sometimes imagining we have super powers or a super power watching over us can get us through a tough spot (Mary Poppins ‘spit, spot’ comes to mind). Wings on feet? Astro Boy? Maybe it leaves her hands free? To do what? Take the world off her shoulders perhaps? But there’s no world in the drawing? Maybe others can’t see how much the weight of the world affects her – she feels it alone. Or could it be a muscle man (woman) pose? Flexing her muscles and being strong? Or it could be a shrug – ‘I don’t know, don’t ask me? I don’t have all the answers.’ And with wings on her feet she’s forever safe from falling – being hurt. Up, up and away is such a comforting thought when things get tough.
(Clunk & Jam book, 2019. Reposted from 2014).
