True Love
There once lived a little fox who asked for a story every night. She loved to hear all kinds of stories, including ones about other animals. As she got older the little fox even began to listen to stories about humans. One day she noticed something that changed how she saw herself. The fox noticed a human just sitting at the edge of the forest and when she got closer she saw that it was writing things down on a sheet of paper. The human would stare off into the distance, write something, maybe scribble something out and then stare at the paper for long periods of time. Moving a little closer she saw that the human was writing their own story.
It was in that moment that the thought came to her, “I could write a story just like that”. The thought surprised her. She hadn’t really imagined it before. It wasn’t long that the fox was writing down characters, far-off places and adventures she never knew she could dream about. The more she wrote the more she just fell in love with it all. The fox was ecstatic to finally finish her first story. She sped off to find her parents. When they had read her story they praised her and told her that she was very creative. They both encouraged her to share with others in the forest. Delighted, she ran to find some of the creatures that might want to read it.
The little fox first came to her old badger friend. Even though the two had a big age difference the fox always enjoyed the badger’s input. When the badger was done she looked at the fox and asked a lot of questions about her story. The fox finished explaining and the badger had given her praise, but the fox was worried others would not understand her story. So she took a little time and rewrote the story to explain more, then she headed off to the big bear’s cave.
In the bear’s cave the fox found him just stretching out as he woke-up from a nap. Most of the animals in the forest were frightened of the big bear, but she knew he was just a softy. When the bear had finished he told her that her story was good, but a lot of it was boring and drawn out. He told her that she should add some action and fighting to help move the story long. The bear walked out of the cave in search of lunch and left the fox to ponder on her story some more. When she had finished rewriting a third time the fox did not feel happy with how she had done it. So she dashed off to find the spider in the log.
She came to the log and scratched at it just like knocking at a door. The spider was a proper young lady that the fox admired a lot. The spider looked over her work and began a whole list of problems that she believed the fox needed to fix. When she looked at it the fox felt overwhelmed with worry. “How could no one have told me I made so many mistakes before?” and with the spider’s help the fox rewrote the story a fourth time. After this last time the fox became filled with doubt.
Even though the spider said she was on the right track now the fox, herself, felt like she was further away from what her story was about. The fox headed home in time to eat dinner with her parents and after words she hid in the hollow of a tree near her family’s den. She looked over the many pages of her story feeling so much doubt in her abilities to write. The fox was overcome with sadness with the thought that maybe she wasn’t meant to write. She burst into tears at the thought. Both her parents came out of the den and found her hiding place. When they asked what was wrong she just pushed all the pages she had written and rewritten her story on. Her parents went through them all and had realized what happened.
They curled in with their young fox and soothed her in the way only parents could. Then they took a moment to clean her up and wipe away her tears. Then they said that there was nothing wrong with her original story or the ones she wrote after. The little foxed looked up and asked what they meant. Her parents told her that there are many ways to write a story. Some you write for your friends, others for family and then sometimes you write just for yourself. The fox’s friends didn’t mean to hurt her into thinking she couldn’t do it. They just wanted to help their friend write a good story. There are lots of animals and people all over the world that just have different opinions to what that is. They told her to try one more time, but this time write a story for each of her friends.
With that the little fox felt encouraged. She spent most of the night awake writing in the den with her parents right beside her. In the morning she set out with all of her stories in her mouth. First she saw the spider. The spider came out of the log excited to see what the fox had brought her. For the spider the fox had written a story that involved two spiders in love that were torn apart by their families. When the spider had finished she had tears welling up in her many eyes. She told the fox how beautifully dramatic it was and thanked her when the fox told her she could keep it.
Next she went to the bear and for his story the fox had written about a warrior bear protecting the forest from a group of greedy beavers, wanting to take over other animal territories for the trees. Her friend was so pleased with the story he went and caught her a fish as a thank you. Finally the fox came to the home of the old badger. The story the fox wrote for her was of a young badger detective on the case of a forest mystery. The old badger loved all the clues and details of the case to find out it was the detective’s evil twin. She said that it was the best twist she could have ever hoped for. The old badger gave the fox a big hug and said she would keep it forever.
By the end of the day the little fox was so filled with happiness and pride that she couldn’t even believe she ever thought she wasn’t meant to write. How silly it was that she let her doubt take her over like that and so quickly too. The fox came to a stop at the hollowed tree and stared for a long while. Then she retrieved some more paper and began one more story. She wrote a story for her, a story about how easily the little things could get you down. The fox wrote about hope that maybe someone else just like her needed to hear. Her tears came back as she remembered how lost she felt when she believed she wasn’t meant to do the one thing she thought only she could do. At the end of her story the fox wrote this:
“There are many things in this world that will fill you with doubt, that will give much pain. Just keep in mind this little thought. If you love something, love it so much that if you are told to quit because you’re no good and the thought alone bring the tears then maybe what you feel is true love. If you feel that much pain at not ever doing it again then maybe it’s what you were meant to do all along. Your dreams are real and just like any other love they need to be nurtured. It’s up to you to keep it growing, to keep it strong. No matter what anyone else has to say.”
