"Alright honey, go get your PJs on and brush your teeth."
"If I do will you PLEASE read me a bedtime story?" begged the little girl.
"Honey it is WAY past your bedtime!"
"Please mom! Pretty Please! I can't go to sleep without one!"
The little girl's puppy dog face and big eyes gazed at her mother. Her mother looked at the clock and let out a sigh. "Only one short one. ONE."
"YAY!" The little girl ran into her room, brushed her teeth, threw on her PJS, and jumped into bed. Her mom sat down on the soft pink comforter and opened up her Ipad. She scrolled through her list of favorite stories that consisted of mostly traditional fairytales. She came across the story, The Stonecutter and realized she had never read that one to her daughter before. She opened the story on the table and began to read.
"Once upon a time there was a man who was a stonecutter. He worked very hard to cut stones for a living. One day, after working very hard and feeling very tired, the stonecutter said, "I wish I was a rich man with a silky bed and gold tassels. I would be happy then." All of the sudden, the stonecutter heard a mysterious voice say, "Your wish is heard, a rich man you shall be!" The stonecutter went home that evening and found his house furnished with luxury and splendid furniture. The stonecutter thought he was happy, until one morning he glanced out of his window and saw a prince ridding in a carriage with servants shading him with an umbrella. "If only I was a prince with servants shading me with a fancy umbrella in my carriage, I would be a happy man!" The mysterious voice appeared again, " A prince you shall be!" The stonecutter became a prince and enjoyed riding in his carriage with his umbrella over his head. However, despite the umbrella shading him from the sun rays, the new prince's skin got darker and darker each day. He was angry about how powerful the sun was so he said, " The sun is mightier than I! I wish I were the sun!" And the spirit granted him his wish and the man became the sun. He would shoot his rays down on the people and the grass everyday, but eventually became discontent because of all the clouds that would block his view from the earth. "Oh how I wish I was a cloud, mightier than the sun!" And the spirit granted him his wish and the man became a cloud. He created rain storms that filled the lakes and rivers and destroyed all the towns and villages. The only thing that wasn't removed from his rain storms was the stone on the side of the mountain. The man said, "Is that rock mightier than I? I wish I was a rock!" The spirit said, '' Your wish is heard a rock you shall be!" The man loved being a rock. He could not be moved by the rain or the sun. "Now this is the life," the man said to himself. One day the man, now a rock, heard a strange noise and saw another stonecutter attempting to chop the rock in half. "Is this man mightier than a rock? Oh, if only I was a man again!" And POOF! He turned back into a man again. He returned to his old life again of hot, long, and sweaty work days, and never complained again about his life. The end."
"Wow mom! He was a lot of different objects!" exclaimed the little girl.
"Yes he was. I wanted to read that to you because it had a great message," said the mom. "Don't be happy with what you don't have. Instead, be grateful of the things and life that you do and make the absolute most out of it."
The little girl smiled and curled up with her stuffed bear in her bed. Her mother kissed her forehead, turned off the lamp, and got up to close the door.
"I love you, sweetie."
"I love you too, mommy!"
Author's Note
I based this story of the story,
The Stonecutter, from the Japanese Fairy Tale Unit. The original story is depicted through my retelling of the story. A man is unhappy with his life and asks a spirit to change him into different things, until he realizes that he is the happiest when he is himself. I decided to tell this story as a bedtime story because I think it is an easy story for children to understand, and also I think the message is important for children to learn. I basically summarized the exact plot of the original story through the mother, who was reading the original story to her daughter. I had fun writing this story and taking a different approach to it!
Source : Japanese Fairy Tales Unit. The Violet Fairy Book by Andrew Lang, Illustrated by H. J. Ford 1901).
