Stories

October 28, 2023 - Army of Ink Ride In A Pumpkin

 

army of ink ride in pumpkin

 

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.

Footnote:   It’s such a competitive world.  There’s a strong current drawing us up, up and away from who we are – or are comfortable and content being.  Acceptance, popularity, success and fitting in, can feel so out of reach.  It can feel impossible to meet the expectations of others.   Until the question arises –  what and who determines our worth?  It’s also wise to question the notion that a sense of belonging exists somewhere outside ourselves.  And that bigger and the better and more determines if we are –  ‘enough’.   It’s potentially a hothouse for discontent.  Home?  Home can be a building, a place,  but it can also be a secure feeling within yourself. 

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August 30, 2023 - Wisdoms of Rose Origin of Sadness

 

Wisdoms of Rose origin of sadness

Rose was very curious about the origin of sadness .

Rose welcomes all forms of feeling with a particular interest in ones of the socially unacceptable kind.  She has pioneered many expeditions into the realms of fear, sadness, anger, disillusionment and horrible muddled states of mind with quite profound results and a significant degree of personal resolve.  Long Live Rose.

Footnote:  We’re often not encouraged to feel what are often termed, ‘negative’ emotions – like anger and sadness.  This Rose seems to be suggesting that ‘to feel is to be real’.  Perhaps to be able to personally progress and move actually requires the acceptance and riding out all emotions.  Viewing them as valuable modes of transport to a better places rather than weakness and flaws in our character?

(Wisdom of Rose and Clunk & Jam 2019 books.  Reposted from 2013).

August 28, 2023 - Wisdoms of Rose Wish Upon Herself

 

rose magic wand

Rose never looked up to anyone – it saved her feeling small .

Rose has a tendency towards independence of a difficult kind.  She is not easily lead and exhibits a strong will to do things her own unusually diverse way.  Rose also sprouts a grounded view on equality which often clashes with the viewpoints of those she refused to look up to.  Still, she continues to look to herself for divine guidance.  Long Live Rose.

(Reposted from 2013.  Find Rose in her own pocket book and Clunk & Jam book 2019.

September 18, 2022 - Robin Small Rocks

 

robin small rocks

 

Robin Small felt the turmoil on indecision in the balls of his feet as he rocked to – Will I?  Won’t I?

Footnote:  Sometimes when there are no answers, sitting it out for a while and taking some time makes good sense.   And sometimes things  never make sense but Robin’s ‘rocking’ seems to suggest he’s not stuck.  He’s working things out – in his own time.  Maybe he’s just wondering?  And wondering (or daydreaming) is so often perceived as ‘doing nothing’.  Nothing of value anyway.  But it’s where ideas come from.   It’s how we gain a deeper sense of things and their meaning –  that others might just pass on by. 

(Robin Small, Clunk & Jam, Second Edition 2019)

 

April 11, 2022 - World Won’t Wait

 

world won't wait tree house

 

World Won’t Wait .

He felt so burdened by the despicable acts of others.  A cutting despair at not being able to get there on time to save the suffering souls, the ice from melting, trees from falling down around the corner.

Lost in the shadow of shame, cast by human kind, knowing all too well the dread awful things that come to the weak, the marginalised, the strong – and those who resist.

He carried this burden from morning into night, until one day he woke to a different tune.  In the tune he caught himself feeling his own sadness, borne from the quest to save all that felt.

Cast in his own time, he could feel every aching inch of his broken self.  The closeness to his own end.  Where he surrendered to the grueling battle.  Stopped in time to mend.

 

world won't wait little boat

 

References:  ‘Hope’ painting by George Frederic Watts, 1886.  With just one remaining in her lyre – she played on.  Little boat reference, the movie, ‘Where the Wild Things Are’, 2009.  Original childrens picture book by Maurice Sendak, 1963.   Find in Clunk & Jam book.

See ‘Strength In Wild Imagination’.   Both in Clunk & Jam book)

January 10, 2022 - Strength In Wild Imagination

 

 

Small is Good.

When the wild things contemplate eating Max, he tells them they can’t eat him because he’s a King.  “But you’re so small.”  They reply.  “Small is good.”  Explains Max.  “My powers are able to slip right through the cracks.”  “But what if the cracks are closed up?”  Ask the wild things.

“Then I have a recracker which goes right through that.”  “But what if they have some sort of material that recrackers can’t get through?”  “Then I have a double recracker that can get through anything in this whole universe and that’s the end.  And there’s nothing more powerful than that – ever.  Period.”

When Max tells the wild things he can make everything right.  They ask, “What about loneliness?  Will you keep out all the sadness?”  Max says, “I have a sadness shield, that keeps out all the sadness.  It’s big enough for all of us.”

( ‘Clunk & Jam Book, 2019.  Film, ‘Where The Wild Things Are’, 2009.  Original story and book by Maurice Sendak, 1963.  Reposted from 2011).