While unearthing an external harddrive, I stumbled upon my fifth grade journal. The bubbly cursive encouraged me to toss it aside, but after several synchronous openings — like pow between the eyes synchronicities — I decided to give it further perusal.
As part of “Simple Abundance,” Sarah Ban Breathnach encourages women to find a picture of themselves at age 10, because she feels this is the age at which women tend to begin losing themselves. I was a tomboy at 10, complete with Laura Ingalls Wilder braids, brown, sun-kissed skin and mildly buck teeth. I wore knees socks. (OK, I still do, but at 10 I even wore them with shorts!) When I went through Simple Abundance in 1997, I found a perfect photo of myself walking on stilts while wearing pink shorts, white kneesocks and very long braids. My face looks down in joyful concentration. I think my dad took the photo right before I started laughing so hard I fell of the stilts. Yep, some things haven’t changed!
Or rather, they have. But they’ve cycled back as I’ve allowed more joy and play into my life. I was startled to find some things I thought I had recently rediscovered from high school, except apparently in high school I had been rediscovering my fifth grade self. In addition to an orobourus of LOVE and a frog king (those of you who’ve read Schizandra and the Gates of Mu will know the significance of this), I also found evidence of studying codes and symbols and portals. There are short stories, including one about a “Backwards Dog” who has brain injuries, and another called, “Over the Rainbow.” Um, If I Only Had a Brain Injury? Sometimes I feel like my life is the orobourus of LOVE!
In any case, I thought I’d share Over the Rainbow:
The day had been a sunny one, until all of a sudden the rain had come pouring down. The odd thing about it was not that the rain had come on so suddenly, but that the sun had not stopped shining.
Martha, a child considered odd by her many brothers and sisters, was outside during this strange occurence. The girl looked up and saw a beautiful rainbow. She had heard of there being gold at the end of rainbows but its beauty satisfied her.
The rainbow lasted for days. Martha sat entranced by its glowing colors.
One day Oscar, Martha’s eldest brother looked up from his video game and saw the rainbow. He too had heard of gold being at the end of a rainbow. He packed up his knapsack and got a large bag. Unfortunately, the other children wanted to know what their brother was up to. At first, Oscar was reluctant to tell him where he was going, but soon the children forced him to tell them.
All the children wanted to go with him. That is almost all. Martha didn’t hold with her brother’s greedy ideas. She wanted to sit and watch as birds flew across the rainbow. Then she thought of Leprechauns. How nice it would be to have one as a friend! She packed up her knapsacks and said good-bye to her bewildered parents. Then, she set off.
Now I’ll bet you are wondering what happened to her brothers and sisters. The brothers and sisters set off with flying imaginations of gold and the beautiful things they could buy with it. The children traveled for months without success. Martha, however, found a Leprechaun right away. They two became great friends. The Leprechaun introduced Martha to the other Leprechauns. They liked her so much that they asked her to stay and live with them. Martha gratefully accepted.
She stayed with the Leprechauns for the rest of her long life.
As for her brothers and sisters, as far as we know, they are still searching for their gold. Their greed has taken them no place but over the rainbow and into the clouds.
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