Sharing beauty
I love borrowing Chinese story books. This is because many of them are award-winning books with beautiful illustrations, touching story lines and excellent in teaching basic virtues. These books were all translated from other languages and are called 绘本.
There is one mystical, dreamy book – 云朵面包 (Cloud Bread) – translated from Korean, which I love. It was apparently originally an animation story.
The story starts with two kittens waking up early on a rainy morning.
They brought the cloud back home to mum…
…who baked some buns out of them! (Oh, how magical – I always wanted to eat clouds myself too!)
After they ate the buns, it caused them to start floating in the air! (Now I know, what happens if we get to eat little clouds!)
However, daddy woke up late, rushed out to work, and so missed eating the cloud buns. So the two little kittens decided to deliver the buns to daddy. They found him in the morning traffic.
After eating, daddy starting flying too! (Samuel loves this part)
And made it in time to the office.
I love the story because it celebrates the innocence and childlike trust of children. It recognises the concern and love children have towards their family. It encourages us with the fact that our children can and do contribute to the family with the talents which they have.
These kittens believed in the wonders of life – that out there in the rainy morning, something magical is waiting. They were rewarded and found the little cloud and they trustingly brought it back to mummy, who validated their trust by gamely using it to bake buns. The cloud was indeed magical because it caused them to fly in the air. They remembered daddy who did not get to eat and the magic caused them to be able to find him in the rain and the traffic, and rescued him from the possible wrath of the boss if he had been late.
The children were heroes that day.
Of course, this is just an otherworldly story, but I think it celebrates the beauty of life and it encourages us to have faith and to hope. So this morning, I read the story to Elkan and Elias too (I have been reading it to Samuel everyday for the past few weeks). I explained the story to our helper too.
Beauty must be shared.