Bags of Rocks and Other Heavy Things

This is a story I wrote for my oldest two daughters, who have different amounts of rocks in their bags right now, but the same amount of love . . . 

Two sisters are walking up a hill. It’s not a terribly steep hill, but one sister is having a harder time than the other. Both sisters are carrying bags, and in each bag is a pile of rocks. The older sister has way more rocks in her bag, so the younger sister climbs faster than she does.

This makes the older sister angry at the younger sister. She feels like she is not as strong, and not as clever, and that everyone is noticing how much further down the hill she is. But really, considering how heavy the rocks in her bag are, she’s doing great! She’s super strong, and super clever to have hauled so many rocks so far up that hill.

Sometimes, the older sister feels like her little sister has no rocks in her bag at all, because of how easily she’s climbing the hill. She even tries to think of ways to sneak some rocks into her sister’s bag to slow her down, so she can feel better about herself.

The little sister doesn’t have as many rocks in her bag, but she definitely has some. One of those rocks is feeling like not having as many rocks makes her less important. Another, is feeling invisible sometimes, and not knowing how to use her voice to tell people what she thinks about things. Another, is that her older sister is angry with her so much, and she doesn’t know how to make it better.

Even though the sisters are carrying different rocks, they’re walking up the same hill. One day, the older sister has an idea. One of those lightbulb-blazing-in-the-sky-over-her-head kind of ideas. She calls to her little sister,“Hey! Why don’t we walk together for awhile?”

The little sister feels incredible when her older sister suggests this. She doesn’t feel invisible anymore! One of the rocks in her bag goes POOF! and her bag is suddenly so much lighter.

The older sister is amazed to see how much straighter her little sister is standing now. She realizes that her sister has been carrying rocks after all, and that showing love has helped one of them disappear.

POOF! 

One of the older sister’s rocks disappears! She’s not angry at her little sister anymore. She’s not jealous anymore. And so the older sister’s bag becomes so much lighter, and she jogs up the hill and takes her little sister’s hand in hers.

“I thought you were climbing so fast because you didn’t have any rocks in your bag,” the older sister says.

“I thought you were climbing so slow because you didn’t want to hang out with your nearly-invisible little sister,” the little sister says.

“How about we climb together?” they say together.

POOF! POOF! POOF!

They laugh as so many rocks disappear, and climb hand-in-hand, their bags lighter than they can ever remember them being.

The End