Daisy Chains

On this wet and lazy Sunday morning I began my day thinking of a word.

DISTANT

It's the next dreem-word-of-the-week and I mixed my burgeoning ideas with some fun conversations I've had with Miss Hive account@dreemsteem about the beautiful power of going slow - the power of the tortoise, I call it.

Those ideas took me back to an old familiar fable about The Hare and the Tortoise and one of my favourite sites, (apart from Hive, obviously) Gutenberg.org, where you can find a wealth of free ebooks from the past.

On top of that, my thoughts took me back to two posts I read this week, one by Hive account@nickydee which you can read here and the other by Hive account@grindan that you can peruse here.

All these thoughts and inspirations led me to write a little story which I invite you to read and hope you enjoy. 💛

Shush, Child. There's no race.

Oh, I don't know. Foolishness, I guess.

Why, Chil', if you go too fast, you don't have time for seeing the flowers along the way. See.

Those ones are daisies, Chil'. They are pretty aren't they? Something about them always makes me smile. I remember when I was around the same age as you are now, I'd pick them and bind them together to make daisy chains. Would you like to do that?

Trouble? Why would we get in trouble, Chil'? I was thinking of getting on the floor but I don't see no trouble to get in. Do you?

Really? Well, I guess we'll just have to pick one to see. Won't we? But, wait a minute first. You're going to have to tell me what to look out for. What does trouble look like?

A monster you say. Ummm. Interesting. And how do we get in this monster you call Trouble?

You can't? But you asked me if we pick the flowers, won't we get in trouble? So, if trouble is a monster, I want to know how we get into it. After all. That's important, isn't it? The HOW.

Hmm. I think you just saw how you could get into trouble just then. I saw it on your face. What picture did you see?

Oh, Chil'. Come here. Come right into my arms. No monster is going to eat you up while I'm here with you. But I can see why you wouldn't want to pick the daisies now. You've conjured up a mighty monster called Trouble and think he might eat you up if you pick one.

Well, let's just sit here a while and look at the daisies, shall we?

The mother and child sit for a while. After a time, momma begins to sing.

I'm a little daisy, tall and slim. Here are my petals. Here is my stem. When the sun comes up and the rain comes down, I grow, grow, grow up from the ground!
_{https://laptimesongs.com/im-little-daisy/}

And with the last word of the song, Momma plucks a small daisy from the ground hugging her child all the time.

Yes, I did. Didn't I? I picked it for you.

What monster, Chil'? I don't see no monster. Do you? Haha! And you certainly won't see one with your head buried inside my cardi. Look Chil'. There are no monsters here.

No. He won't. We're just going to sit here and have us some fun instead. Hehe!

Now, that's a very good question, Chil'. How do we have fun? First off, it's important that we feel safe. And that's not likely to happen when we're thinking about a horrible monster called Trouble, is it?

Yes. I can see that. But you know what I can't see?

I can't see any monsters here. All I can see are pretty little daisies and you. What can you see?

Yes, that's right. We're the only ones here. Do you feel safe?

Good. Because that's the first step toward having some fun. Do you wanna know what the second step is?

It's this. And this. And this.

You want me to stop tickling you? Do you? Oh, but I can't. I'm having too much fun. You see how easy it is.

Okay, sweet chil' of mine. I'll stop. But only if you tell me you now know HOW to have fun.

You wanna know something else about having fun?

Well, it's in your smile.

Yep. And it's in your giggle.

You see, it's right there. And you're in it right now. Can you feel it, sweet Chil'?

So, sweet chil' of mine, would you like to make a daisy chain with me?

Good! Because there's something else I want you to know.

If we'd been going fast, fast, fast, we wouldn't have been able to have this much fun. Would we?

So now, do you see, why I said those people who were rushing passed us might be foolish?

Yes, sweet Chil'.

Probably, Chil'. Probably. But, will you be scared of Trouble anymore?

With that last thought tucked away as a newly-formed-memory of fun, mother and child sat and slowly made the longest and prettiest daisy chain ever.

The cover image was created in Canva using a photo by Melissa Askew on Unsplashand free elements from canva's resources.

The line breaks were created from scratch using free elements in Canva.
Dreemport gif used with permission from Hive account@dreemport & Hive account@dreemsteem.