A little note before reading…

To parents, to children, to friends, to strangers, to vulnerable individuals, to the animals that have had to be abandoned at zoo’s… much love, care and creativity to each and everyone of you in these strange, strange times. I’m thinking of you. x

What is there to do…

When all there is to do, is to do the same thing we do everyday? Whimpered Christopher to his adoring sister, Cecilia. It stormed a big storm all day. It had been doing since mid march.

Cecilia and her big brother Christopher were beginning to feel a little drizzly themselves.

Auntie Margot couldn’t help but notice two sad little faces sitting at the table. In all this drizzle from the outside, Auntie Margot couldn’t help but notice it was drizzly inside too. Maybe she shouldn’t make a lemon drizzle cake after all. She put down her bright yellow mixing bowl and whisk for a moment.

‘‘The world is feeling sleepy today, so we can’t go outside’’ said Auntie Margot in her softly spoken voice. ‘‘It just needs a rest for a little bit, a snooze with the moon and the stars. The World has a sleepy head but i know after some rest it will welcome you both with open arms.’’

For a moment, Auntie Margot saw a glimmer in Christopher’s eye, and as he looked over at his inquisitive sister, Cecilia, he passed the same glimmer onto her though a simple blink.

Although the children hadn’t been able to go outside to watch the night sky for a while, there were two little stars in each of Christopher and Cecilia, just above their noses, resting under the thoughts that orbit the planets in our own internal universe, our mind. Our mind is where our thoughts are looked after.

We have our own special connection to space.

We may find Mercury, Venus, Earth, Neptune, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus and Pluto if we were to visit the Solar System, but all the little and big planets, the comets, the moon and the asteroids, can be found in our own solar system, our mind.

Our thoughts are so powerful and magical, just like the Solar System.

And how the constellations light up, the stars of our mind are just as bright, and our hearts are even warmer than the sun.

The planets are so generous and kind to orbit around the Earth, and when people do kind things for us and we do kind things for them, we orbit around each other and it keeps us all happy.

Auntie Margot knew how imaginative Christopher and Cecilia could be and their twinkly eyes held so much inquiry for the world, but their eyes had been so fixed on their TV recently that they looked a little square and their mind’s felt a little weary. And a little dreary.

‘‘I know just the thing. Why don’t you choose a room to go into in the house and you can imagine that it’s anywhere you like.’’ Enthused Auntie Margot. ‘‘I KNOW I KNOW I KNOW’’ delighted Christopher: ‘‘We could go on a SAFARI! But…how can we go on a safari if we can’t leave the house?’’ Christopher seemed just as quickly deflated as he had gotten excited.

‘‘Close your eyes. Count to five.’’ Auntie Margot said calmly, melodically.

So Christopher and Cecilia did just that, and on the final count, they opened the door to the living room.

And as they turned the door handle, they thought to themselves, ‘‘we can’t leave our house, but we can still visit anywhere we like…’’

And so Christopher and Cecilia did just that, and entered the portal of the living room. Only… when they looked around things looked and ****felt different.

Their eye lids fluttered for a moment like butterflies emerging out of the caterpillar’s form.

The sofa was no longer a sofa, but a fierce and fiery lioness prancing through the jungle.

The lampshade was no longer a lampshade, but a towering giraffe munching on deep green leaves where the ceiling used to be.

The stripey rug that once lay on the floor, was now a sneaky, slithery snake sliding across the earth.

And the pillows on the sofa were no longer pillows, but Mother and baby owl’s huddled next to each other on a tree branch.

And as Christopher and Cecilia adored at the safari around them, the world they were in now, felt just as exciting as the world they were so used to outside.

Christopher and Cecilia met so many animals that day that they decided that they should visit the safari again another day. They dreamt of the animals all through the night.

The next morning, Christopher and Cecilia rose to the gentle touch of the sunshine on their cheeks as the night time returned to the day through the window’s enclosure. The night time was deposited safely back through opening the curtains and starting the day. And with that, the alarm clock of the sunshine streamed in.

The tired rub of their eyes and their stretches waltzed them to begin their day like they began every day, with Auntie Margot in the kitchen with them making breakfast all together. The smell of warm waffles gave them a gentle lift and they told Auntie `Margot all about their adventure.

‘‘Where will you go today?’’ Auntie Margot eagerly inquired as she handed them the remote control to watch their cartoons.

Christopher and Cecilia weren’t sure. Where else could be as exciting as the giraffe, the snake, the owl family and the lioness that they met yesterday?

As Christopher and Cecilia flipped through the channels, the television started to become very fuzzy and blurry indeed.

Their eyes scanned down to the remote but it began to crumble. They looked at each other for a moment. How confused they must have felt.

As their eyes fell back to their hands for a moment, there was no longer a remote control in grasp. Only a paint brush.

The television was no longer a television but a plain canvas with a big, golden frame shaped around it.

The kitchen was no longer filled with sauce pots and pans, but pots and pots of paints and brushes.

The children trailed their brushes all through the paint across the floor and onto the canvas walls, and they illustrated the white canvas so beautifully that the blankness on the canvas was nothing but a distant memory.

As they dabbed and dipped their brushes into the assorted paints around them, they felt like they had created their own expedition, just for them.

As Christopher and Cecilia thought about the excitement of their day, they danced down the hallway. Only something was different.

The frames on the walls were no longer there, but the pictures still hung happily.

Only, they were orbiting around each other. Their grandmother, grandfather, uncle, parents and friends moved closer and brighter as the stars guided them from above where the chandelier had been.

The pictures were no longer on the walls, and they ran an orbit around Christopher and Cecilia like they were the two most important planets of all.

Although they hadn’t seen their family and friends in a terribly long time, the pictures kept them close, much closer in their own version of space, in their own space in the hallway. They were much closer to them now than if they had simply been on the walls.

Christopher and Cecilia felt cared for. They really felt cared for by all they know and love even if it couldn’t be in touch, the power of their imagination was a superpower in times when they felt powerless.

The world may feel tired, but it chuckled a big chuckle, a lovely laugh, and it felt Christopher and Cecilia playing in the most powerful world of all.

Their imagination.

And after some time passed, and many sunsets had concluded the spring days of Christopher, Cecilia, and Auntie Margot, the summer sun came to stay with them for a little while.

And by the time the bees had kissed the flowers goodbye and the pollen had sweetened and the taste of honey was all around, when the summer did arrive, the world started to wake up. And it yawned. And it stretched. And it brushed its teeth. And it brushed its hair. And it got dressed.

And the world became wide eyed once more.

The world breathed a deep breath.

In the many hopeful mornings, the harvest neared. The leaves on the branches reddened and deepened and fell and swept the once empty pavements outside, with purposeful footsteps of families and friends. And oh how fun it was to be with people and share Mother Nature’s offerings together.

The leaves swept the feet off all the pedestrians that walked by.

‘‘The world might just be ready for some guests after all’’, grinned Auntie Margot, as the gentle breeze of the new day brushed past her face as she opened the door for her nephew and niece. Christopher and Cecilia invited the morning song of the birds into their home, as the morning song of the birds invited Christopher, Cecilia and Auntie Margot outside into their home, the world.

And as they walked out into the street the chalk drawings on the earth that they had painted so many months ago, were still there.

Who knew that the canvas they could paint inside, could also be painted outside.

‘‘Well, where should we go now?’’ Enthused Cecilia.

‘‘Anywhere in the world’’ smiled Auntie Margot.

For a moment Christopher and Cecilia stared out into the sky.

What was once such a far away sight felt, well, still far away.

But as they looked at the sky through their telescope, two little stars looking through the lense returned to the sky, into the wonderful abyss.

From space, Christopher and Cecilia looked like distant stars. And they shined all day and they shined all night. Christopher and Cecilia look to the stars for light at nighttime, but what they didn’t know is that the stars look to them for light all through the day and all through the night. The universe watches us, even at home, even if we can’t see who is watching.

From the sky, Christopher and Cecilia looked like distant stars.

The world always sees us and we can always see the world with our mind, through our very own planet, our imagination.

And the pictures that orbited around them inside, were now orbiting them outside.

Only this time, their family and friends weren’t pictures in frames, but open arms.