A Bedtime Story for Bloob

There was once a princess from a little village in the forest.

One day, her grandmother took her aside after dinner and told her she had a great gift to give the world. 👵🏼👸🏼

Her grandmother gave her some food and a knapsack, and led her by the hand out the front door. 🎒🥟🍪🍎

They walked to the path near the forest and stood there.

The grandmother said “You have to go now! Walk until you find the gift you need to give the world. You’ll know it when you see it.”

The girl started crying, afraid, but her grandmother hugged her and she felt a little better.

With a little courage in her heart, she started walking.

She walked and walked and walked and walked. 🌳🦌🦶👣

She got tired and she slept. 🥱😴💤

She got hungry and she ate the food her grandmother gave her.

She got thirsty and she found water in a stream. 💦🌊

She saw bears and deer and trees and strawberry patches and the moon and the sun and the stars and little blueberries and the many sweet and varied textures of the bark on the trees and little insects crawling everywhere. 😲🐻🍓🫐🐜🪲🪳

Under the trees and the stars, she forgot what it was to be afraid. 🌲🏕✨🌌

Even though there were no walls and no chairs and no beds, she felt right at home. The forest was her home, after all. 🛏🪑🏠❌

Eventually, she came to the end of the path. There was no more path to walk in the forest!

In that moment, she stopped to listen. 👂🏼🙉🔊

She could hear the birds flying overhead, calling to each other, zigging their zagged lines in the sky. 🦅🐥🦆🕊🦉

She could hear the trickle of the stream, gushing and rushing and swaying and swinging.

She could hear the grasshoppers chirping and the sloshy stomach of a wood creature grumbling. 🦗🐺🦨🐇

She even thought she could hear the roots of the trees stretching out just a little farther.

And in that moment, her ears perked right up. Taking in every sound she could possibly hear like the sight of a wide expanse at the edge of a canyon, she realized something!

She heard everything in the forest but herself!

What sounds was she making?

It was her voice! 🗣👄

Not the voice that told her grandmother out loud that she was scared.

Not the voice inside that grumbled about having eaten all the food in her knapsack.

But a quieter voice!

Quieter, and somehow – more true.

It sounded like a very very small instrument- perhaps a violin, it sounded like singing, but orchestral! 🎻🎼🎵🎶

She listened closely.

“Psssttttt psst psst….”

“What’s that?”, she said.

“Hi there!”, it said.

“Oh hi!”, she said back, delighted. She was starting to develop an ear for the voice in her heart! So quiet, so sweet, so pure.

“How are you today?”, she asked.

“I am so happy! I finally get to meet you!”, her heart’s voice answered back. 🥺

“Oh! Me too!”, she exclaimed. “I’m so happy to meet you too!”

“There’s something I need to tell you,” her heart said.

“That gift your grandmother sent you to look for? There’s no present, no box. It’s not a secret cake in the woods or a big stick or a pretty rock or a watercolor painting set!” 🎁➡️💝🎂🍰🍩🍭🍦

(She had wondered, after all, and it seemed her heart had heard.) 🤫🤐🤭

“That gift she told you to look for – it’s me!”

She gasped with surprise! 😲

She had been so sure it would be an object! A dessert, perhaps, or a secret of some kind.

“If you listen to me closely now and tomorrow and for all your days, I’ll guide you true. I’m not a map and I can’t take you north or south or east or west but I can take you to the place you need to go, the place you need to find before you leave this life and leave this earth.” ♥️🗓🗺🧭

“If you listen to me every day and do as I say (for I’m you, after all), I promise when you’re ready to go, you’ll be happy and won’t have a single regret, you’ll have learned every lesson you needed and given every gift you have to give and you’ll die a happy woman that your children and your grandchildren and all your people will remember and love.” 🤞🏼👯‍♀️

“I’ll never hurt you and I’ll never steer you astray – I’ll be the best friend you ever have and you’ll never regret it. You just have to remember what it’s like to listen so close you can hear my quiet little voice, even in a noisy street or a crowded room.” 🎧💥

“I’m sorry to say it won’t be easy! But it will be Good and True and even Fun and I’ll love you for all your days.” 💟💌💓

“What do you think, sweet Bloob?”

(For that was her name, the sweet little village princess who lived with her grandmother at the edge of the forest.) 👸🏼👑🫐

“I’m in! What a wonderful gift to have found!”, she said. 🥰

And she walked straight home, back through the forest, past the bears and the trees and the grasshoppers, under the sky and the sun and the moon.

And when her grandmother looked out the window and saw Bloob coming out of the edge of the forest, she knew for certain before her granddaughter said even a word that Bloob had found the voice in her heart. 👵🏼👀👧🏻🏡🛖🪴💚

The End ❤️

Story by Tasshin, Emoji Illustrations by Bloob

You can watch a video version of this story on YouTube here.

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