Grandma’s game of imagination

Grandma was in the room with her sick granddaughter. She was there to look after her while her parents were at work. As she watched the little girl sleeping, she got into thinking about her life..Looking at all the beautiful toys and this attractive playroom she went back into her own childhood, to the days when she was living in a small house without all these modern amenities. She always felt a little bad about her past, mainly due to the fact that she grew up having a very poor life, in contrast to other people she knew. But she was never complaining about that. “Why am I not complaining? What did I have when I was a child that made me happy even though I lacked the things my daughter and my granddaughter have?” She had never thought about that before, preferring to leave the past in the past.. However there was something in the air that day which got her wondering. And then she saw it clearly. She didn’t feel the lack of toys because she had created them in her mind! This made her happy and helped her in these hard years. And this was the biggest gift that life had given her! She was able to create a toy with everything she had in hand. And why not, use her own hands! There were no limits to what she could use as a toy! The little girl woke up and looked at her.

- Grandma, I am bored and my head hurts very much!

- Well, my little princess, would you like to play today with a toy different from the ones you have in your bedroom?

- I can’t play right now, grandma! I am sick!

- Who says so? Of course you can play! You don’t need to get up, you don’t need to do anything at all! Just listen to me and we will travel together in a world far far away..

- Will you read me a story?

- We will create a story! So, let’s begin.. What if I weren’t who I am now? What if I could turn back the time and change it all to something different?

-Who would you be grandma?

- Well, let’s imagine that I was a fairy, yes, a beautiful fairy with long red copper hair..

The grandma picked a red scarf and wore it on her head pretending it was her hair.

- My clothes were soft, silk and with bright colors. I was dancing inside a river, a cold but the same time so warm river. You could smell the aroma of the flowers and the freshness of the water in the air. I was dancing alone and the frogs and the fish in the river were singing along with me. So happy I was. So peaceful, so serene… The sky was blue like the sea and the sun was sending a magnificent light to all the forest. Did I mention I was in a forest? The earth and the soil were moist around the river, I was grabbing small rocks and throwing them gently in the water just to hear that sound, that “plop”! My God, it was so beautiful! Would you like to join me? Do you want me to take you by the hand and dance together? Sing together? You know what, we can also fly! Yes! My robe has wings inside that can fly me wherever I want and I can take you with me! Would you like to fly together my beautiful granddaughter?

And the girl, that was lying in the bed, exhausted from the fever and her illness, laughed!

-Grandma you are so silly!

- I am not your grandma! I am a fairy! Do you want to fly?

The girl intrigued told her, "Yes, I want to fly together with you! And I want to put my feet on the river!"

The grandma put a little water in her granddaughter's feet.

- Do you feel the cold and refreshing water under your feet? Do you feel the rocks? Can you see the little frogs that are leaping around?

And the grandma made images of frogs with her hands and mimicked their croak.

-Yes, yes! I can see them granny! I can hear them!

And this little “game” went on with the granny and the small girl flying around an imaginary forest.. The girl soon enough stopped laughing with her grandmother and got into the story forgetting about her fever, the pain, the exhaustion.. She was chasing the frogs in the river and was listening to the birds singing a funny song! She was so happy, so calm..

Her mother arrived in a while all stressed out about her little girl to find her laughing and chewing her food with ease!

-What happened here? Is my pretty one better now?

- Mom don’t make noise! You will wake up the turtle!

- Where is the turtle my beauty?

- Besides the granny! There is a turtle and she is sleeping after we played a lot today!

The mother looked at her mother with suspicion..

- Dear mom, have you tired the girl with stories and stuff? She needs to rest the doctor said! Please, don’t do that!

Her mother looked her in the eyes and smiled..

- My dear, the doctor has advised you well.. But this child needs to play, don’t you see that? Her eyes are sparkling right now.. In a few days she will be so healthy that she will be back at school playing and laughing! Let her free, don’t worry so much! Trust me in this!

The mother of the child looked at her and sighed.. But she agreed. Her mother was right. She was being too worried with her kid, too preoccupied to do the best according to the “specialists”.. But there was her little girl, happy and joyful while yesterday she was crying and hurting!

- You are right, mother. How did you do that? I am usually reading stories to my little girl and I am playing with her but I just can’t seem to make her this happy! And I would certainly not think about playing while seeing her ill and suffering!

- It’s a game my daughter. See all this as a game.. The game of happiness! It is a game that can be played by anyone at any time. It doesn’t matter if you are healthy or ill, rich or poor. It is the game of imagination! I remembered that when I was young and didn’t have any toys around, because we didn’t afford to have them, I would grab the broom and play with it.. I would dance with the broom and talk with her, doing funny accents! My brother would sit and watch me!

- My uncle? You’ve never told me these things.

- Yes, these were hard times and I didn’t want to remember them.. But something today made me remember how happy I was back then, something I had forgotten over the years of comparing myself to others, more “fortunate” than me. I “earned” the gift of creating my own toys in my imagination! When I first started doing that, playing with everything I had, your uncle was mocking me! He would tell me that I could never be happy playing with things that are not real toys! And since we are poor, we will never be able to play and we will be forced to work and be tired, just like our parents.. I would listen to him at first and worry if there is something wrong with me, but then a little voice in my head told me that playing is a gift to every single person in the world! So I went on with making up my little stories and soon my brother was there to play with me too! We were very happy despite these gloomy days! Our parents could not understand how we could be so playful.. You know my dear, you can buy to your little girl every toy that is available; but you need to teach her that she can play with and without all of them! This is what I am trying to do.. And this is something you could be doing as well!

- Me? I am way beyond the age of playing, mom! I have so many things to do every single day! This is not possible! I only play with my girl trying to teach her what will be useful for her in her life. Isn’t this what you also did with me?

The little girl started to cry. The mother went straight on to her..

- What happened? Why are you crying?

- Why did you come and we stopped playing? Go away mom! I want to play with grandma! I don’t want to see you like this, you are worried, please go away!

The grandmother swept the tears of the face of the child and kissed her.

- Why don’t we all play? You know, your mom is also a child and I didn’t play with her like that when she was at your age..

- Is she? No, she is not! I am a child! My mom is a grown up!

- Yes my dear, she is a child, it’s just that her body is a little changed! So, let’s play all together! Grab my hand you two little girls and follow granny, who is also a little child, don’t look at my wrinkles and my white hair, I am just a child like you two! Forget a while all of your worries and imagine with me that we are all fairies in a wonderful land!

And just like that, a happy mixture of three generations, started to play and the house was lit with joy..