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The Sky Shepherd

 by

Rod Stewart

The best friend in the world is our Sun. A lot of people get too busy working, playing and other things. They rush around and forget about special stuff. Like the clouds, the birds , the sky and even our good buddy Sun. But these pals are always there no matter where our eyes, ears and noses are going. It's a good idea to remember our friends. And to think about all of the fun we have had together. I bet that you can remember lots of giggling and finding out brand new things. That was pretty good huh! Imagine some things that you would like to do with your pals someday soon. Like swimming , canoeing, exploring the woods and making sand castles. You might even try thinking "Thank you, I'm glad that you are my friend!" It's a very nice message to send to your chum. Just think it. You don't even need a letter or a stamp! Your pal may not always hear the same words that you send. But they will receive a warm feeling. Then they will know that you cared. It is just as nice as a smile and a hug.

You can thank the Sun, too. Because the Sun made the very first hug on Earth, That happened a very, very long time ago. Actually it happened a very, very, very long time ago. It would take so many merry very, very's as to be downright hairy scary. In fact, the story is so old that nobody really remembers exactly what has happened. So, I will need your help to make up a few parts here and there. It goes something like this. . .

The Sun used to stay in one spot all day long. It didn't roll across the sky,  like it does today. When the golden eye got sleepy it just pulled a big blanket of stars over itsef. This made everything else black. Then everyone else thought it was time to go to bed, too. The stars on the blanket are truly fairy eyes. These pretty eyes twinkle like magic crystals. They are the night lights. So that no one is afraid in the dark. Some people believe our ears are for hearing. Not so. They are really two tiny doors. The dreams swim into one ear. Then they make wonderful stories. And then go out the other ear.

Making dreams is a lot of fun. The fairies have so much fun that they don't stop before it's too late. Then there are more dreams than people, animals and things. Often there are leftover dreams from the night fairies. The dreams turn into clouds in the daytime. The Sun looks after them. It is the shepherd who guides the flock in heaven. That is why you often see a herd of clouds moving around in the sky. The Sun tickles these white puffy animals with it's fingers. We call these the Sun's rays. This rounds them up into bunches here and there. The Sun takes very good care of the dreams. Because everyone knows that dreams are very important.

The Earth saw the Sun having a great time playing with all of the dreams. It wanted to play with the dream clouds, too. But the clouds would not come down. They just floated around in the blue sea above like toy boats in a bathtub. The Earth didn't like the Sun having all of this fun while it was stuck down below. So the Earth decided to grow very long arms. On the end of the very long arms the Earth grew very long fingers. The Earth was very jealous. It was so jealous that it's fingers turned green. Today we call these green things trees. But the trees still couldn't reach the sky.

The Earth got mad. It got angry enough to blow it's top. It rumbled and roared. It snarled with angry teeth. All of that fuss made earthquakes and volcanoes.

Getting mad didn't work either. The clouds still hung upstairs. So the Earth just gave up. It began to cry. It cried and cried for days and days. This made the oceans. After all of that the dream clouds still did not sink down. The Earth learned that being jealous, angry and crying isn't a good way to get things done. It hurts a lot , too.

The Earth just sat still and wondered what to do next. The sea became so quiet that it looked like a mirror. The Earth had a plan. It would play a trick on the Sun. And then maybe it could get it's hands on some of those dream clouds. The Earth froze solid. When this happened the Sun up above looked down into the pure blue sea. Do you know what it saw? Another Sun! Well! Two Suns! Now that is really something new. The Sun in the sky found that pretty hard to believe. Even the clouds had twins down below. That would mean that there are twice as many dreams to look after now. Because there are twice as many clouds. That is an awful lot of work. The Sun decided to move. It had to move. With all of these brand new clouds, just twiddling finger rays around in the blue air wouldn't do the job. Then another strange thing happened. Whenever the Sun moved, it's twin down under also moved. They moved together. This was confusing. The Sun started running away from it's reflection. It ran from East to West. It made a big arc right over the frozen Earth. And down below it's playmate tagged right along. The Sun ran faster and faster. Soon it got tired of doing this day after day. The Sun became so tired zooming across the sky that it forgot all about the dreams. The clouds didn't know what to do. So they started to huddle together. A blob of puffies here. A dash of cotton there. The clouds thought that if they all met into one big cloud,  then maybe they could figure out what to do. The sky became too cluttered up. All of those clouds in one lump made it very dark. The Sun could barely drag it's heels. That didn't help.

Now the Earth was cold and frozen. The sky was dark. This made all of the people and animals think the End was near. Life was not fun anymore. Especially without dreams that were glued to the sky. Everyone missed the twinkling fairies. This was serious business.

All of the living things on Earth got together. They loved each other very much. Just the same way you love your Mom, Dad and Nan. They asked God for a hand. God said with a snap of his fingers (zap! lightning!) "Piece of cake!" "Do you love the Sun and the Earth as much as you Love each other? "Everyone replied "Of course we do!" The voice from heaven boomed " Well maybe you've forgotten. Because I haven't seen many jolly things happening down there lately. "

Everyone bowed there heads in shame. They nodded, yes , maybe they could show a little more care and kindness. Maybe they were too busy running around not paying attention to the important things. After all, the Sun and the Earth took care of them. The Sun and the Earth gave them Life. They felt pretty ashamed of themselves.

The bees buzzed. The beavers gnawed at plans. The woodpeckers pecked away at ideas. Finally they shouted "Aha!" It was a clever scheme. An idea sure to work. What few dreams they had left among themselves,  they shared together. Dreams were as precious as diamonds then because they were very rare. Since most of the clouds were stuck in heaven. When you give something away to someone else that really means alot to you, you do it for one reason. You do it because you Love them very much. God smiled a big grin when this happened. In the very last dreams every mind turned into one thought. It was giving all of their Love back to the Earth and the Sun. If all of the people and the animals died tomorrow that is what they wanted left. The last thing and most important was Love.

So they dreamed the very best that they could. It was a blue dream of the Sky and Sea. Because air and water keeps our bodies alive. Without bodies our spirits would not have houses to play in. The dream was also white. Because white is the color of things that are pure and true. The dream also had a voice. It sang of being happy and enjoying beautiful things. Well, when God felt this going on,  a little of Creation's magic was tossed into the pot, too.

A nudge was needed to make things better. So God reached down and scooped up a fistful of snow. It was packed into a rock hard snowball. Then God threw it at the Sun. The Sun had become really lazy and snoozed almost all day long. Suddenly "Whack!" The snowball hit the rear end of it's target. The Sun woke up with a startled "Ouch!" as the snowball spun down to Earth. Now it felt guilty for sleeping too long. The Sun realized that God thought that it was lazy. The Sun had an important job to do. So it brushed the grey fog from off it's shoulders with a big laugh and went back to work. The smiling Sun made things warm again. And the snowball melted while it was dropping through the sky. It melted into millions and millions of teeny tiny snowballs. Named snowflakes. The snowflakes punched holes through the black clouds. Which made for peepholes for the blue sky and sunshine.

These were snowflakes from a snowball with extra magic. Since God made it. The baby flurries heard the laughing animals, trees and people down below. They were pleased to see the Sun. The snowflakes were happy to see everyone else happy. So they started dancing on the wind. Around and around the snowflakes whirled. They swirled so fast that bits of blue sky got caught in their hair. Then they became really dizzy and started bumping into each other. But they kept on singing all the same. In no time at all these blue and white snowballs grew wings. Because they wanted to fly in the breeze all day and chirp beautiful music. And this is how the Bluejay was born. It is a special bird made from the snow of the Earth, the blue of Heaven and the happiness of all living things.

The Bluejay flies sometimes and hops on the ground at other times. It is shared between the Sky and the Earth. When you share something special with someone else, you have become good friends. So the Sun and the Earth became pals again when they shared this magic bird. And the earth felt happy enough without the dream clouds.

Now the Earth gets two kisses everyday. Once in the morning when the Sun touches the land in the East (at sunrise). And again before bedtime when it touches the land in the West (at sunset). Sometimes you may even see a big curved bow ribbon of lovely colors in the dream clouds. This rainbow is the Sun stretching out it's arms into a really big hug. Just to spread Love to good friend Earth and all living things.

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