Why Hippity Hop Changed His Name by Kathy Weber Zunker.
Hit the Rehab.
Was a small rabbit.
Born in the forest.
Next to a house where a little boy lives.
Hippity Hop was a small,
Furry,
And soft little rabbit.
And the little boy watched the baby rabbit day after day.
As Hippity Hop grew.
The little boy would watch Hippity Hop as he played in the sun.
Near the edge of the forest and ate green grass in the bright sunshine.
The little boy saw the rabbit finding dandelions.
Right there.
Near the edge of the forest.
And nibbling those bright yellow flowers.
First eating one side and then the other side.
Nibbling those bright yellow flowers until just the right amount was left.
Of that beautiful flower.
As he joyfully popped the rest of it into his mouth.
Until the entire sweet flower had been devoured and the bunny's belly was full.
At night Hippity Hop settled in for a peaceful night's sleep.
Breathing in and out.
Great big deep breaths.
Weighed down into his belly.
And as he was taking those deep,
Relaxing sleep-time breaths,
His little pink nose would wiggle back and forth.
When the snow came in the winter time.
Hippity Hop learned how to burrow tunnels in the snow.
Finding his way to here and there in the yard.
One day in summertime,
As Hippity was eating the lush green grass,
The bright sunshine began to fade.
As the sky became cloudy and gray.
And soon it began to rain.
Lightly at first,
And then even more rain came down.
All the other rabbits hid themselves under wood or hay to keep warm.
Hippity was not scared of the rain.
And yet he knew he needed to find a safe place to wait out the rain.
But the rain kept coming down for a very long time.
And Hippity Hop grew weary of waiting.
He began to imagine that it might still be raining.
When the time would come for the big family rabbit picnic.
And that would ruin everything.
And he started to imagine that nobody liked him.
And imagining a branch falling from a tree onto his paw and smashing it.
Just when his imaginings were the worst,
The little boy from the big house saw Hippity Hop hiding from the rain.
The little boy gently walked to the scared little rabbit.
And picked him up.
Ever so gently.
The little boy took the rabbit into the house and found a warm,
Cozy blanket to wrap him in.
And he talked to Hippity Hop as if he knew exactly what was going on in his mind.
The little boy said.
I bet you are imagining that this rain is never going to stop.
I bet you're imagining that you will never hop around eating dandelions again.
Or maybe imagining that you are never going to get to play with your friends again.
But little bunny rabbit.
You have to understand.
That the mind you have for worrying is the same mind you have for happying.
Happy Ying thought the bunny.
What is happying?
The little boy said,
You can be worrying with your mind.
Or you can be happy-ing with your mind.
And the great thing about it is that you can't be doing both at the same time.
So as soon as you start happying,
The worrying just stops.
You already have a good mind,
Little rabbit.
You can imagine all the bad things.
So why not use your mind to imagine all the good things?
You can use your mind to help you feel lots better.
As Hippity Hop listened to the wise little boy.
He began to understand that his mind was always the leader of his body.
He always had to have a thought before his body followed along.
If he wanted to eat dandelions.
He thought it.
And then his body followed him.
And if he wanted to play in the grass.
He thought it.
Then his body followed.
And if he wanted to go to the bathroom.
He thought it.
And then his body followed along.
And now.
.
.
He was going to start happy-ing.
And he knew his body.
Would follow along automatically.
Feeling better and better.
First Hippity Hop imagined a helium balloon.
A helium balloon that was even bigger than he was.
And he imagined taking all of his worrying thoughts out of his mind.
And started emptying them from his mind and putting them into the helium balloon.
And each time he reached into his mind and took out more of the worry and put it in the balloon,
That balloon got heavier and darker.
And he was feeling better and better.
And the balloon got even more heavy.
And even more dark.
And he felt even more better and more better.
Feeling light inside himself.
And still the balloon got heavier and darker.
Cleaning out all of the old worry thoughts from his mind.
Feeling better and better.
More and more peaceful inside.
And finally,
When he was nearly done pulling out all of those worries and putting them into the balloon,
And just as that last worry thought was entering the balloon,
Then at that very moment,
The balloon floated up.
Up into the sky and burst apart,
Scattering all those worry thoughts to the far corners of the earth.
And they were gone.
They were gone.
They were completely gone.
And now.
Even though it was still raining.
There were happy thoughts flowing through Hippity Hop's mind.
And his body felt better and better.
Even though it was still raining.
With happying thoughts and feelings flowing through his mind.
He was feeling calm and playing games with the little boy.
He knew that the sun would come out sometime.
He wasn't sure when,
But he was still feeling happy to stay in this safe place.
Now he knew for sure that his mind was the leader of his body.
He felt safe.
And love.
And never alone,
Right there with the little boy.
Now that Hippity Hop was feeling so happy and so calm inside,
The little boy opened a red umbrella.
The little rabbit had never seen one before.
And so the little boy,
Protecting the bunny from the rain.
Carried Hippity Hop to the edge of the forest where his mother was waiting for him.
Hippity Hop was so much more content now.
So calm and so peaceful.
And he played so well with his brothers and sisters.
Everyone could see that he felt better and better.
And even as the rain was still falling,
Hippity Hop decided in that moment to change his name.
That's right.
From now on,
He called himself Hippity Hope.
Because he liked being hopeful.
About when the rain would stop.
And he liked being happy.
Knowing that the sun was going to shine again.
Feeling happy to stay in this safe place.
With happy thoughts flowing through Hippity Hope's mind.
Feeling pleasant.
And playing games.
And that is why Hippity Hop changed his name to Hippity Hope.
Because even though it had been raining for a long time,
It felt so much better to be a rabbit that was hopeful.
