In following on from last week’s story by my young friend Camila Miranda (if you haven’t already, check it out), because while I don’t claim to know anything about the psychology of children’s minds, I found this conversation that followed, very enlightening into her thinking and processing of this current time declared as a pandemic.

In talking to Camila about her story and how it came to be she explained it like this: “A lot of movies are about going on a mission, so this would also be a story about going on a mission.”

When I asked her how each of her characters came to be who they are, she replied with this:

The bear in the cave featured because of a movie she watched about bears hiding a crystal ball (that held the control of the water supply) in a cave. And the ‘magic note’ was just an idea that she used as the messenger who had known the world before it lost its emotions and colours.

When it came to asking how she came up with the storyline, she seemed a bit coy and couldn’t answer, so I ‘broke the ice’ with “It reminds me of now and how things are with the corona virus.” She smiled sheepishly. I asked her who would the bear be? She replied: “The virus.” And if each of the characters are people, then who would she like to be? Camila replied: “I would like to be Honey Flower distracting the bear with my pot of delicious honey so people can find their emotions and colour again.” And how would you do this? I asked her. “By helping people to know the right thing to do.” she answered.

I love her characters and their various roles. And so this is what I came away with:
Daisy the Flower was the leader who reached for the ‘magic note’ and took up the challenge. We all need a ‘magic note’, to remind us how things used to be, what we need to get back, and to warn us if they see any traps involved in the process.
Then we all need friends that we can call on, who will journey with us on our mission. Just like Daisy the Flower and her friends, we need to be careful of the traps, but not be afraid of the dark. Grab a torch and shine a light into it, and see what you find . . .
Use your gifts: if you’re a torch, be a torch. If you make delicious honey, then make delicious honey.
Raspberry Tree was the rescuer! Be a rescuer (so long as you’re fit and healthy for the task), because at some point in life, we all need to be rescued. While Raspberry Tree rescued Emotion Rock knowing its purpose to restore emotions and colours to the world, we don’t always know the purpose of the person that we rescue from their cave, whatever that looks like. But in my experience, wherever there’s a rescue story, there’s a comeback story to follow. What a comeback story for Emotion Rock and its purpose!

In reading how Daisy reached, Honey Flower set the scent of the environment, Yellow Hairy Torch shone, and Raspberry Tree rescued . . .it kind of reads like 1 Corinthians Chapter 3 Verse 6, that we all have our own part to play in life. And in Camila’s story, it was because of each other that they each got to play the parts that they did in the rescue of Emotion Rock.

And then the story concludes with friends experiencing the joy of spreading all the emotions and colours of Emotion Rock around. I’m thinking that moment would look like (and feel like) everyone in a ‘colour explosion’ fundraiser fun run.

But wait! There’s more . . .

While I was busy capturing her words, young Camila presented me with another picture she had drawn on a post it note as we were talking. When I asked her to tell me about it she said it is a rainbow tornado. When I asked her to tell me more, she said: “Well it started out as a rainbow cup, but then it didn’t really work, and so I started doing this bit going around and around (the black at the mouth of the cup) and then it became a tornado taking all the colours out of the world!”

Same same (message), but different. Again, I find it interesting that she started out drawing something that we fill, only to feel that it wasn’t working out, so it became something that takes away as it destroys. Something that was going to add to the colour in our world, became the theft of colour from our world.

Isn’t this how many are feeling in regards to this year of 2020? A year with so much promise of what we would put into it, a year of vision, 2020 vision, only to see none of it working out, to becoming something that has taken away so much in its path of destruction, leaving many of us feeling void of our emotions and colours.

Two stories:
Choosing to do something,
an element of taking control.
OR
Total chaos and destruction
Completely out of control.

But not wanting to finish on such a gloomy note. Here’s a few thoughts I’ve considered:
1) Could it be that this year has been one of bringing 2020 vision, just not in the way that we thought it would? And for all its devastating losses, maybe the reason as to why (which we may never know), is still completely unclear, because we’re not yet in a place (on the other side of it) to be able to see it with the perspective of true 20/20 vision yet.
2) Using what we have within us, how can we each be one of Camila’s story characters in someone’s day? Through reaching out, joining with on a mission, to pack some supplies, to shine a light in a cave, to sweeten a ‘sad and grey’ day, to help someone come out of their cave, that they might rediscover emotions and colours they once knew.
3) And last of all, in as much as is possible, to be one that does what we can to flip someone’s rainbow torpedo upside down, but right side up, to that of a rainbow cup. That our words and actions would be like bursts of colour in someone’s world.

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