Story #293

Once upon a time, two cats lived in a tiny cottage. They were husband and wife. They ate fish together and sang together. They did everything together until, a nasty human came and picked up the female cat. The male watched in horror as he put the female into a TINY cage and walked away. The male followed the human into a humongous place where they called “town”. The human put the female cat into a shop as the male watched kids come and grab the female. STOP PUTTING ANIMALS INTO TINY SPACES!  THEY HAVE LIVES  HAVE A RIGHT TO LIVE!

– Shaaee, Male’

Story #292

The House of Folklore is a brain child of a girl in her mid twenties on a summer early morning at 2am working in front of her architectural office desk in Hong Kong. Struck upon a philanthropic thought, ‘why am I doing this? Is this job meaningful enough to make it a lifetime career?’

The very next day she was ready to put down her papers and decided to explore what she loved best art and culture. She envisioned a brand where every piece would have a story to tell. She wanted to bring together a team of designers who would be as passionate as she is to bring life to her thoughts. From there grew a team of designers, artists and artisans who passionately work in each of the products and help breathe life into them. The team believes the products that come out of The House of Folklore brand are definitely worthy of being passed on to the next generation and not a mere keepsake.

Story #291 – How to catch a shark

I got a letter from my six year old nephew the other day. Amongst other things he asked: “How do you catch a shark?”. Well, we have a couple of options.

Option 1: try to fish it. Which can be a bit tricky since you don’t know for sure what bait to use. I mean, some sharks love pastries, some eat only Mc Donalds and then there’s the occasional vegetarian shark.

Option 2: use a net.

The tricky part here is that you always manage to get a lot of extra stuff in the net in addition to the shark. And no one is happy when the electric eel gets loose in your boat.

Option 3:

Challenge the classic options of fishing and netting your pray and think outside the box!

The tricky part here is that most trapping gear is made for above water use. But if you want to catch a really, really slow shark lasso could work!

The real question is: what would you do with a shark if you finally caught one?

Option 1 would be to keep it in some kind of aquarium. Tricky to find one big enough though.

Option 2: eat it.

Might be tricky because:

1. it’s hard to find a big enough sauce pan.

2. what kind of seasoning goes best with shark? Thyme? Salt? Pepper? How much? Until the shark sneezes twice?

3. the shark might not appreciate it.

Option 3: teach it to do tricks!

Might get boring when the shark has eaten all the audience and won’t fit through the rings anymore. And a shark on a diet is anything but pleasant.

If I’d catch a shark I’d go for it’s heart. If you manage to befriend a shark you’ve made a friend for life. And what a friend! Sharks make the best donuts, never cheat on board games and know where to find every adventure of the sea.

Bring raspberry lemonade, it might help.

Story #290

Responsibility. So often lately have I found myself wondering about that word. The true meaning of it. Is it a responsibility to finish things you’ve started? Or is that just something that are expected of you?

Recently I took a test. Myer-Briggs-Type-Indicator. MBTI. It was really accurate. My personality is described as gentle, smart, easy-going and tender. I have the ability to make friends easy and people always can rely on me. And one of my greatest features are starting projects and come up with amazing ideas.

But as we all know, there’s two sides of a coin. The backside of mine is that though I am really good at making good ideas and start projects, I can’t really follow through. I am a great leader, who can distribute an idea or a project between other people to get it done. But if I’m alone in it, then I usually never follow through.

For example, my projectlist (with %-ish completement):

Learning Finnish 2%
Learning Italian 1%
Get my masseuse-training done 90%
Finish my medicine ground course 5%
Make a Link-quilt 95%
Spring/winter/summer/autumn-clean the house 20%
Knit a sweater 80%
Build a bookcase 5%

And it just keeps going…

So.

Instead of finishing all the things above, I start something new. I buy a colouring book for grownups, and refuse to stay inside the lines and paint all over the lines (just because I can). I solve crosswords. Everyday I watch Food Factory on Discovery Science at 5.43 P.M to learn everything I can.

Responsibility. Is it a responsibility to get all these things done?

Or is responsibility the utterly, define, sweet, heart aching love for people? For all the small children of “mine”? Of being a godmother?

I sit and wonder, while I continuing to knit on a babyblanket.

– Matilda, Tavelsjö

Story #289

Once upon a time there was a sad unicorn named Christy! Christy was sad beacuse she didn’t have any friends, every time she tried to make friends all the others unicorns laughed at her and they screamed bad words to Christy!

In the beginning Christy started crying and ran away but now she’s stronger!

Christy started a group for every single unicorn that felt lonely, like she did. Christy took this group with big arms and together they helped every single unicorn that felt lonely or sad or just needed a friend, just one friend to have on their side! Christy and her friends in the group are happy 🙂 So if you need a friend, just call Christy.

– Sarah, Västerås

Story #288

Max was getting old.
He had lived a good, long life – even by turtle standards. It had started the same way as all the other turtles he had known: crack out of the egg. Race to the sea. Swim for approximately one hundred and fifty years. Then retire.

He was even sure that he had done his part in keeping the species going over the years, even though he would never really know because turtle-dads never really meet their children. But he had the confidence of his good turtle-intuition that they were all alive out there and generally succeeding in their  sea-turtle adventures and in their sea-turtle lives.

All that remained was for Max the sea-turtle to settle back in his shell, smoke his pipe and float along the current while reflecting on his 150 years of life.

He’d met all kinds of beautiful fish in the brightest colours. He’d tasted every kind of underwater plant that was considered a delicacy in the turtle world.

He had watched in awed silence as collossal whales passed by above his head like ghostly Giants, their shadows causing a temporary night around him.

Some evenings, he swam up to the surface and stretched his neck so that he could watch a blazing sunset on the open blanket of sea around him. Then he would fill his shell with air and float on his back and watch the moon and the stars for a while before swimming back down to his bed.

Yes. He was old now, but he was happy. All that he needed to do was figure out how to pour whiskey into his glass without it floating all over the place, and he would be pretty much complete.

– Adri le Roux, Cape Town

Story #287

I’m stuck at the bathroom right next to the Business World Society. There’s a beautiful girl that I know right outside. And they know I’ve been here for over an hour now. They will think that it’s super strange if I just walk out now. I can’t answer the phone either.

What should I do? The battery for my computer has run out as well.

Couldn’t you come by and call the elevator so that it can drown the noise from when I flush the toilet?

Seriously, if you come by and just wait outside and grab the bathroom after me I can tell you that I used the bathroom because I needed a quite place to study. Please can you come by now?

So that you can flush.

– Anonymous, Stockholm

Story #286

Poppy, a 8-years-old rabbit, lives in the forest alone, cause her father and mother have passed by last year. At first she really can’t accept this crutal fact, until she met Cindy.

Cindy, as old as Poppy, lives alone as she knew the world. That day when Poppy met Cindy, she was crying in a thick growth of grass. Suddenly, she heard a sweet sound.

”Hey, little girl, how’s going? Are you Ok?”

”Ahhhhhhh. . . . ”

Poppy was too scared to do anything but shriek, and then lose her consciousness when she turned her head back, and leaving Cindy with a big mask of tiger on her face behind. Cindy was all in a fluster when she saw Poppy passed out. She done nothing but holding Poppy’s left hand. After 15 minutes, Poppy opended her eyes and saw a pretty girl besides herself.

”Who are you” she said in a weak sound.

“I’m Cindy. I really sorry for what I have done before. I just want to show you a surprise and make you smile.“ Cindy said

Poppy gazed at Cindy and she could find the remorse in Cindy’s eyes.

“That’s OK. I was just too excited“ Poppy said

“aha? Really? and please to meet you. I think we are friends now” Cindy said with a big smile.

“Friends?” Poppy can’t help but crying. In the past 8 years, she never had a friend. No one will stand by her except her parents and no one liked her, as she only has one ear.

“hey, what’s up?” Cindy asked

“Just too excited” Poppy answered and smiled to Cindy.

From that on, Poppy had her first friend of her life. They ate together, slept together and gossiped together. They told each other what had happen to them, included their families, their formerly life and the only one ear of Poppy.

“Before I meet you, I always think that I am the coolest girl in the world. Because I can live alone but happy. I can do everything what I wish to. But when I meet you, I find that I am cooler and happier than before” Cindy says while she is climbing the apple tree

“Cindy, watch out, please. It’s dangerous.” Poppy looks up and says to Cindy.

”I’m happy to hear what you have said, but I will be happier if you can pay more attention to your safety while you are climbing, dear”

Day by day, Poppy live happily with Cindy and she believes that it will be all the time. Until Jack appears.

One sunshine day, when Poppy and Cindy are playing football in the square, one handsome boy catches the ball and said to Cindy, ”

Hi, Cindy. see, I’m back “

Cindy looks at him.

“OMG, Jack. You finally came back. I’ve missed you so much”

And they hug each other.

Poppy, standing behind them. can’t say any word and doesn’t know how to speak out.

And then, Two rabbits turns to three rabbits. But the happiness doesn’t turn to bigger.

Poppy begins to think that Jack and she, which will be better in Cindy’s mind. Why does Jack appear?

Gradually, Poppy’s smile on her face is less and less. She hates to see Cindy and Jack, expecially when they smile. She feels lonely again, and begin to lock herself in the darkness again.

One night, when Poppy woke up in the midnight. She found Cindy was sleeping near herself and looking at herself.

“Cindy?” Poppy said

Cindy held her hands, smiled and said in a soft sound

“Poppy, I have to leave tomorrow. I just want to tell you I love you, and I will be in your side all the time. The world is colorful, please stop locking yourself in your own dark room. Jack is our friends, you can depends on him and I suer you will feel safe when you stay with him. Poppy comes out, join in the world.”

“Please don’t leave me alone, Cindy, please don’t. . . ” Poppy cant say anything but cry. And then she tried her best to open her eyes, she saw nothing. Thank Godness, It was a dream.

In the second day, Poppy woke up early and planed to look for Cindy. When she just came into Cindy’s room, there came out Jack.

“Cindy has gone, Poppy. here is the letter she wrote for you”

After Poppy read the letter, she had burst into tears. The letter told the same as Cindy said in her dream last night. Cindy had gone.

“Why she has to leave me?Could you please tell me reason, Jack ?”

Jack holded her hands, said

”Cindy was a angel from the heaven. Her job is to help the helpless to be strong, help them find their confidence to live. She leaves us, because there is someone else need her. Poppy, be tough. Cindy is confident to you. And she believes that you have the courage to live in the world. ”

Poppy can’t say anything but hug Jack.

“Bye, Cindy. Bye, My cuties angle”

Three rabbits turn to two rabbits, but happiness truns to bigger.

– Coco, Beijing

Story #285

“If you please– draw me a little prince!”

“what!”

“Draw me a little prince who can tame me!”

“Why?”

“My life is very monotonous. The colors of sunrise and sunset just alike. All tastes of dinners are just alike. All sounds of everything are just alike. I ‘m a little bored. If there is a little prince who tame me,it will be as if the sun came to shine on my life. I shall feel the warmth of sunrise and sunset, smell the flavors of every foods. The sounds of him will become music. What’s more, I can sleep peacefully in his hug.”

– +SEVEN, Dong Guan

Story #284

Den varma marken ångade efter den snabba sommarskuren, som hade fuktat lite på ytan av de torra markerna på Botbygårdsvägen ett. Syrsorna startade sitt surrande på nytt och vingarna på allehanda flygfä glittrade i solen, när de flyttade sig flitigt från blomma till blomma på mammornas odlingar. Lanthandeln vid skogskanten skulle öppnas snart. Lanthandlaren hade fått hjälp från sina kunder i byggandet. En stor planka ställdes mellan två stenar. Stora kunden hittade runda, fina stenar från stranden, prima potatis! Lilla kunden samlade maskrosblommor i en liten kartong:

– Det här kan vara smör, och så tar vi maskrosbladen som fiskar.

– Ja, och kött måste vi också ha, konstaterade lanthandlaren och tog fram en dyrbarhet; en alldeles riktig fruktkniv. Den hade lanthandlaren och hennes kunder fått, efter en viss tvekan, från sin mamma.

Med kniven i högsta hugg skuttade lanthandlaren fram till närmaste gamla stubbe och började tälja loss bitar av det ruttna trädet.

– Vi har ju vår ko här, jag tar lite kött… och mjölk.

Till sin glädje upptäckte lanthandlaren, att stubben var ihålig och innehöll lite mörkbrunt vatten.
Fast mjölk är ju vitt:

– Hej, den här kossan mjölkar kakao, vad mumsigt!

Under tiden hade lilla kunden upptäckt ett träd fullt med pepparkakor. Några av aspens löv var dekorerade med vita kringelikrokar, som såg ut som kristyr, andra var översållade av små röda bollar, som godis. Lilla kunden pratade fort, för nu var det bråttom:

– Jag måste gå på toa, men ni får plocka pepparkakorna från mitt träd under tiden, om ni vill, meddelade lilla kunden nådigt innan hon skyndsamt sprang hem.

Lanthandlaren och stora kunden var i full färd med att trampa på några röksvampar, som puffade ur sig fantastiskt stora rökmoln. Nu vände de sig mot pepparkaksträdet och fyllde sina famnar med rastlöst darrande, vackert dekorerade löv.

– Men pepparkakor har ju inga skaft, dem får vi knipsa bort, bestämde lanthandlaren, och tillsammans ordnade flickorna pepparkakorna fint på ett stort hästhovslöv.

– Kolla här vad jag har fått! Lilla kunden hade blivit klar med sitt brådskande besök och höll triumferande fram en röd plåtburk med texten JUBILEUMS MOCKA.

– Alldeles riktigt kaffe! Det kan vi sälja i lanthandeln, men då ska jag vara lanthandlaren!

– Okej, men då vill jag vara en prinsessa, som kommer och handlar tårta till sin födelsedag.

Den nya lanthandlaren ställde sig bakom disken och förkunnade bestämt, att hon tar emot endast svarta stenar som betalning.  Att det finns svarta pengar, det hade hon hört på radio. Det utbröt en diskussion om färgen på pengar, ingen av flickorna hade sett svarta pengar. Det var också oklart om prinsessor verkligen gick och handlade sina födelsedagstårtor själva. Ett gräl var nära, när en vänlig röst avbröt flickorna:

– Vilken fin affär ni har, får man köpa något?

En rund, rödkindad gumma stödde sig mot sin käpp och log mot flickorna. Ögonen glittrade bakom glasögonen, när hon lät blicken svepa över varorna i lanthandeln. Från sin förklädesficka rotade gumman fram några mynt:

– Ni säljer händelsevis inte några blommor i den här affären?

Händelsevis hade flickorna plockat en var sin bukett ängsblommor, som de hade placerat vackert i gamla syltburkar på rad på lanthandelns hylla. Gumman fick sina blommor, och flickorna neg djupt som tack, när de tog emot, var och en, en femöring som betalning för blommorna. Gumman hasade försiktigt vidare i sina rödrutiga tofflor, som var dekorerade med röda fluffbollar ovan på foten.

– Här ser ni, att pengar inte är svarta, utbrast stora kunden.

– Såg ni vilka fina tofflor, jag tror att hon var en gammal prinsessa, suckade prinsessan:

– Och hon handlade sina blommor själv, så det så! Prinsessor kan handla själv.

Prinsessan fortsatte att följa den gamla prinsessan med blicken. Sakta närmade denne dörren till ålderdomshemmet.

– Jag hörde på radion, att man måste ställa sig i kö till ålderdomshemmet i tid, för annars dör man, och då är det för sent. Jag hoppas att den gamla prinsessan kommer in, det syns ingen kö nu i alla fall, funderade prinsessan.

Den gamla prinsessan hade kommit fram till dörren. Flickorna höll andan, skulle hon komma in? I det samma råkade flickornas pappa komma gående på Botbygårdsvägen. Han skyndade sig fram till gamla prinsessan, lyfte artigt på hatten och öppnade dörren åt henne. En lättnadens suck undslapp flickorna. Pappa hade räddat den gamla prinsessan, hon skulle inte ställa sig i kö för sent, och dö nu!

– Men, funderade nya lanthandlaren och lutade sig tankfullt mot sin affärsdisk:

– Om de gamla måste  stå i kö, måste de stå där på natten också? Och, och vad händer, om de blir kissnödiga?

– Saila, Kil