The song of the albino squirrel
A children's story about 'musicality of being'
photo by Victoria Pickering
I was recently challenged to write a children’s story.
At first I dismissed the idea as a joke. Then, when I realized how far it took me outside of my comfort zone, I decided I should do it.
Here goes nothing!
The song of the albino squirrel
Based on a true story
“Music is not exclusively of the ear, or of the mind. It is of the body as a whole. Though it may require the involvement of ear and mind, music is not fully appreciated when it is severed from an engagement with the moving body. To receive music as music is to dance. . . When the body dances, its limbs are moved by a power not its own. The music itself is the guide.”
- John Russon
Chapter 1: Have you ever seen a squirrel with all white fur?
photo by Corey Seeman
This is a story about an albino squirrel. Albino means his fur is all white instead of brown. So he doesn’t look like other squirrels.
There are albino people too. Maybe you’ll meet one some day.
It’s also a story about how your eyes and ears are connected to your heart and feet.
Sometimes what you see and what you hear changes how you feel and makes you want to do new things. And when you do new things, who knows who you’ll meet!
While we read this story, if you see or hear or feel something new - especially if you feel something new that you want to DO - you might even think this is a story about you!
This story could happen any day of the week. Some people might say that it’s not really that special. But I think if you listen with your heart instead of just with your brain, you’ll be able to feel what makes this story so great.
Hey!
Does your body feel all squirmy?
Are you wondering when this story is going to begin?
Good question!
This is a story about what happened to me on an ordinary Tuesday afternoon.
Chapter 2 - How does it feel to be a boring grown up?
photo by Steve Ding
This Tuesday felt like most Tuesdays. I was doing what a lot of grown ups spend a lot of time doing these days. I was sitting inside and looking at a screen.
What I saw with my eyes made me feel bored and tired.
But before you think “feeling bored and tired is no fun,” I’ll tell you what’s good about it.
The things we feel are like words in our body. Except they don’t have letters and they don’t make a sound. They aren’t like words in English, Chinese, Swahili or Spanish.
But feelings can talk to you and give you ideas.
That’s why it’s a good idea to listen to what your body says.
Do you know how to listen to your body?
It’s easy, but it’s not something you do with your ears.
You use your whole body to listen to your body!
Do you think these words sound funny?
How does the sound of these words make you feel?
What does your body want to do now?
Well, that Tuesday afternoon my body wanted to go outside. So I did. As soon as I stepped out the door I was glad, even though rain was falling down from the sky.
Chapter 3 - Is it really true that trees can’t move?
Outside there were cars driving down the wet street. Their wheels made a cool sound on the ground that my ears really liked.
I wasn’t bored any more. I was feeling excited!
My eyes were seeing new colors and shapes.
I looked side to side. I looked up and down. I looked at the sky. I looked at the ground. All the while my ears kept listening to those all those really cool sounds.
That’s when I saw how my eyes and ears were connected to my heart and my feet!
I knew it was real even though it felt like a dream.
Can you guess what all these funny words mean?
By now my feet were walking down the street and all that walking kept changing what my eyes could see. Most grown ups think that houses and trees don’t move . . .
But that’s not the way that it looked to me!
Each time I moved, they moved too!
Each time I stopped, they did too!
As I walked the street, the ground ran towards me and right under my feet.
Tree branches flew by me right over my head.
Can you believe the words I just said?
Houses zoomed past me on both sides of the road.
On my side they moved quickly but on the other side they went slow.
What do you think about that?
I’ll tell you what I think even though I know some grown ups might not agree.
Chapter 4 - What happens when you hear your favorite song
photo by Maximus Beaumont
Do you remember when I said you can use your body to listen to your body?
Well, I think you can listen to the world that way too!
I know you’ve heard that listening is something we do with our ears. So please don’t worry you didn’t hear correctly. What you heard is true.
But remember how your body uses words without letters or sounds to talk to you?
That’s part of hearing too!
Does this story still sound funny to you?
Let’s pretend we’re listening to a really cool song . . .
What do you think we would want to do?
Would you sing along or at least hum the tune?
Maybe we’d clap our hands or stomp our feet
If it was the kind of song that has a really good beat.
Or do you think we’d just be listening with our ears?
What if all our friends were dancing and singing and having fun
But we were just sitting there listening with our ears.
They might wonder if we knew how to hear!
Songs get inside us by going in our ears,
But once they’re inside us, then they make feelings.
How can you tell?
Because those feelings weren’t there before the song began.
But now your body wants to clap your hands!
When I went outside that day, there was no one there playing a guitar. No one was singing or dancing or clapping. But the tires on the rainy road made a cool sound and the houses and the trees were moving all around me.
My body was filled with feelings that felt like an adventure.
It felt like the whole world was playing my favorite song!
Chapter 5 - How do you feel when you see something weird?
photo by Tolga Ahmetler
I walked all around my neighborhood, the same one I always see, but today I was looking at the world in a whole new way.
Because now I knew that looking was something I could do with my whole body too!
There was so much to see, but certain things seemed to call out “look at me!”
Sometimes I turned my head without knowing why and found some weird thing looking me straight in the eye.
Once I found a fence with cracks where I could see through.
A big bulldozer on the other side was digging a hole in the ground.
It was moving all around and making big sounds.
I couldn’t see any driver controlling the machine so I started to think it was a weird robot creature. I tried to imagine all of its features.
It grabbed the dirt with its metal hand. It bent its metal elbow to lift it high. It turned its hand over to drop the dirt. It straightened its arm again to reach for more.
Can you use your body to imagine how I felt when I saw those things with my eyes and had those thoughts in my head?
Are your eyes pretending to see that weird robot creature right now?
Can you see it inside your brain even though there’s no picture of it in this book?
Chapter 6 - Did you ever see something that made you feel mad or sad?
photo by Xia Yang
After I saw the weird robot creature I kept walking until something made me mad.
But then I stopped because I realized that I really felt sad.
Then my body’s feelings told me just what to do,
And as soon as I did it I stopped feeling blue.
I was just walking along and admiring the trees when I saw a soda can that someone left on the ground.
I thought “they shouldn’t do that!” and it made me feel mad.
Then I saw a picture of myself in my head that made me feel sad.
Was I the kind of grown up who never picks up trash?
If that was really true, it might feel really bad.
But my body already knew just what to do.
I bent my knees and got close to the ground.
I picked up that can and turned it upside down too.
When my body changed shape, it also changed my point of view!
Does your body feel different if you think about picking up trash?
The way your body feels can change really fast!
Now I was looking for a trash can and I had a cool thought. Everything looked the same as before but somehow it looked different too.
I guessed it was because my eyes wanted to answer to the question in my head.
Where can I put this piece of yucky trash?!
Then I saw more trash on the ground.
This time it was a food wrapper and it was yuckier than the can.
But this time I didn’t feel mad and I didn’t feel sad.
I just picked it up because I had a plan.
When I got home I could wash my hands!
I noticed that I liked what I was starting to feel.
If my body spoke in words it would have said:
“This is no big deal.”
Chapter 7: What if the whole world was a song?
phoro by Avel Chuklanov
Suddenly, I felt so happy to be outside. I felt so happy just to be alive!
It felt like this cool song was playing everywhere.
But It wasn’t just made from all the sounds I heard,
Like the cars and the rain and the birds in the air . . .
The song also looked like everything I could see.
And it felt like the wind on my skin
And all these new feelings inside of me!
If I had been chewing gum, maybe that’s how it would have tasted.
Maybe it would have even smelled that way before the flavor had faded.
I was just walking around, but it felt like dancing!
My body was talking to me without using words.
Just music and feelings is all that I heard!
The music was on the inside and the outside at the same time - even though the song kept changing and the words didn’t always rhyme!
I guess what I’m saying might sound funny again,
But I think you know by now that you can use your body to listen in different ways.
If you use your imagination, I think you’ll hear what I’m trying to say.
Chapter 8 - Were you ever surprised by meeting somebody new?
photo by Kate Dolamore
Now I was walking home again.
I figured that’s the way this story would end.
But then something happened that I didn’t expect.
Before I knew it I was twisting my neck.
A surprise appeared out of the corner of my eye.
It looked like a squirrel, but its fur was all white!
An albino squirrel stopped me right in my tracks.
I just stood there watching while my body relaxed.
That squirrel came running straight down the side of a tree.
A car was driving up the road and I thought,
Don’t go there please!
But the squirrel was looking for something inside of a bush and he ran right inside it while the car passed by - whoosh!
Squirrels are creatures you can see without visiting the zoo.
And if you watch you’ll be amazed at the things that they do.
Once I saw two squirrels jump up making crazy sounds.
They wrestled in the air even before they came back down to the ground.
They did it three times, then started running around!
When the white squirrel went into the bush, I thought he was gone,
but I waited just in case I turned out to be wrong.
And even though I didn’t see his face again,
Suddenly his white tail popped out and waved at me like a hand.
In some ways that squirrel seemed like every other one.
But his all-white body made seeing him more fun.
I started walking again while I thought about all the things I had seen,
All the sounds I’d heard and all of those feelings.
I wondered:
If I told this story, would anyone believe me?
The world must have heard me thinking that thought.
Because all of a sudden a car came and it stopped.
The window rolled down and I saw a woman who smiled. She said,
“Hey, has that squirrel been living in this neighborhood for a while?”
Now I knew that this wasn’t a dream because someone else had seen what I’d seen!
Chapter 9 - What kind of song do you want to sing?
photo by Felix Koutchinski
I guess this story might seem ordinary.
But to me that Tuesday afternoon was extraordinary!
I promise everything I just told you was real.
Now what about you?
How did this story make you feel?
What things can you see and hear right now?
Do those things look cool?
Do you like how they sound?
What are your feelings saying to you?
What does your body want you to do?
Do you want to have an adventure too?
Just go outside, the world is waiting to make music with you!
“The illiterate of the future will be those who can’t feel” - Bonnitta Roy