The Exploding Birthday Cake

Author’s note: Back in Lockdown when the children had to do Home Learning, one of them had to write a story and kept saying they didn’t want to. So Mummy challenged them that she could write (a not very good story) quicker than they could and to see if they could win the story race! Well it worked, they wrote a story, but it’s not this one. This one is the one Mummy wrote to get them to do theirs.

In a remote forest lived a very noisy elephant called Freddie. If he didn’t get everything how he wanted it, as well as more food than he could eat, he would stomp about trumpeting and upsetting all the other animals.

It was a lovely quiet day and Naughty the Monkey was enjoying resting on his favourite branch. But then, oh no, Freddie started rampaging…again!!! The other animals were getting very distressed and fed up with Freddie and his behaviour and Naughty Monkey thought enough is enough! Naughty Monkey hatched a cunning plan. It was soon going to be Freddie’s birthday and he was being very demanding about wanting a mahoosively giant cake. Naughty Monkey was determined it would be a cake Freddie would never forget. Having volunteered to make it, Naughty Monkey teamed up with all the other animals to get all the ingredients he needed – including some surprise ones.

When everyone was asleep Naughty Monkey started work. He baked and baked and iced and iced. Finally, it was complete and it was a wonderful sight to behold. Naughty Monkey spread the word to the other animals to make sure they knew not to share the cake, despite some saying it looked “just too good not to eat”.

It was not long before everyone was gathered and Freddie, in podium position, looked grandly on as the other animals were obliged to wish him “Happy Birthday”. Freddie closed his eyes to make a wish, which is why he didn’t see the other animals moving discreetly away, took a deep breath and blew…

{BANG} went the cake and Freddie the noisy elephant became Freddie the cake. He was so surprised but before he could so much as stomp Naughty Monkey said “Maybe now you’ll learn your lesson!”

And now every time Freddie starts to stomp the animals look him in the eye and say “cake!” Will he be a quieter elephant from now on? Only time will tell.

The End.

Ponderings on Time

Is it a friend?
Or an enemy?
Endless ages spinning in a wheel.

Is it a beginning?
Or an end?
Or an everlasting circle?

Is it now?
Or then?
Or yet to come?

Is it the clock ticking?
Or the silence inbetween?

Is it an invention to imprison each second?
Or free flowing like an everlasting waterfall?

Is it a burden?
Or a joy?

A trial?
Or a challenge?

A struggle?
Or an adventure?

A curse?
Or a blessing?

An illusion?
Or reality?

Linear?
Or “wibbly wobbly”?

Darkness?
Or light?

What if time is all those things and more.

After all life is what we make of it. We can either be negative or positive. We can let difficulties, bad moments/days, events drag us down; or we can use them as stepping stones to a better place, looking at them positively as learning experiences with, and being full of, hope, smiling at adversity and with the determination that each new second is better than the last.

A Kind Word or The First Step

It’s really easy to be a Christian…when there’s no tests. But then, that would be too easy, wouldn’t it? In a world full of choices, free will, temptations, emotions, likes and dislikes there is much to make our journey hard. But the end result is much more fulfilling if we put that hard work in.

Some time ago, walking back into church bringing the Sunday School back in, I looked up and saw a neighbour – someone who lived in our building and whom was not a “model neighbour”.

That sinking feeling when you see someone you don’t really want to because you have to be nice. The “did you have to come through our door when there’s many many churches in the High Street, only yards away” feeling.

The answer that we don’t want to listen to but must is “Yes. They are my children too”!

And it is so worth it – to just put in that tiny tiny effort. A smile, a “Good Morning”, a “Welcome, it’s nice to see you here”.

And one day, we might be visiting their church and the best thing will be, regardless of whether they remember that you were kind to them or not, when they welcome you in return. And the most important thing that you’ll remember about that visit was that when you walked through the door of somewhere that you never expected would become a second home, someone, whether they wanted to see you there or not, was kind to you and made you feel that it was okay, good even, for you to be there! And all we can hope is that the tiny tiny effort that we made, that smile that cost us nothing, those kind words at just the right moment, maybe also meant as much to them!