Are you ready to meditate with Kori?
Make sure that you are completely ready for bed.
You've brushed your teeth.
You've got on your comfortable-est pajamas.
Maybe you're snuggling a teddy or one of your favorite stuffies.
This is part two to the treehouse story.
Heidi,
Cherry and Veo were on Mr.
And Mrs.
Slawowski's back garden.
They'd been there for a while.
It was the following Saturday.
They got all weekend to work on the treehouse.
They didn't get that much done last Saturday,
But this weekend they planned on getting almost all of it done,
If not all of it done.
They got some different friends over to hang out and play with them and obviously help them build the treehouse.
Cooper and Jack had come over.
They were brothers.
And Cooper and Jack had got two border collies called Mabel and Murphy.
And they come over also to play.
And then there was Tyler,
Charlie and Adeline,
Who were brothers and sisters.
They got all the wood that they needed laid out in different areas of the garden.
The ladder that they were going to make was laid out in one area.
The pole that they definitely were going to have that they'd found during the week,
By the way,
Someone who knew someone who knew someone knew where they could find a pole.
And it was perfect for the treehouse.
And then the actual majority of the treehouse,
The floor,
The ceiling,
The building were all laid out in different areas of the garden.
So if everything went to plan,
They should have got everything in the right place.
Cherry wasn't feeling it today.
I don't know what's wrong with me.
OMG,
What am I going to do?
I woke up this morning and I was like,
I don't feel like it.
I don't feel like doing anything.
Don't even feel like getting out of bed.
I didn't feel like brushing my teeth.
I didn't feel like putting my OMG t-shirt on.
I didn't feel like saying hello to my mom and dad.
I didn't want to talk to Heidi.
I didn't want to talk to Faya.
I mean,
Look,
We've got two new friends over that I've never ever met before,
Mabel and Murphy.
And they're so cute.
Those border collies are so cute.
Cooper and Jack.
I love you dogs.
I love them.
But you know what?
I'm not feeling it.
Don't want to play.
Don't want to build.
Don't even want to talk.
Heidi said,
This is not like you,
Cherry.
What's wrong?
Has something happened?
No.
Nothing's happened,
Said Cherry.
Faya said,
Maybe,
Maybe it's something that you're maybe thinking about or that you're sad about that you don't really know.
Like you just feel sad or something.
That happens to me sometimes.
Cherry said,
You know,
You know,
You might be right because it's not like I can just say,
Oh,
It's because I banged my foot yesterday and now my foot hurts and I'm in pain and the pain is making me grumpy and the grumpiness is making me just not want to do anything.
It's not like that.
I'm just really quiet.
I feel really quiet and really withdrawn.
Like I want to be in my own cocoon,
Far away from everyone in the world and I don't want to talk and I don't want to have to smile and I don't want to do anything.
And I'm a bit perturbed about it because,
You know,
You know,
You know,
Like when you're always happy,
Like me,
I mean,
Normally I'm so awesome.
I'm so happy.
I'm so adventurous.
I'm so brave.
I'm so fun loving.
I'm always fooling jokes.
I'm always cracking jokes.
I mean,
It's like I'm like this kind of personality,
Right?
And then when people are around me,
I mean,
I mean,
I mean,
Tyler,
Tyler,
Have you ever seen me sad?
Tyler said,
No,
Definitely not.
See,
See,
Charlie,
Charlie,
Have you ever seen me quiet?
Charlie said,
No.
See,
Said Cherry.
Adeline,
Adeline,
Caitlin,
Gabriella,
Have you guys ever seen me depressed?
All three girls,
No,
No,
No.
See,
You know what it is.
You know what it is.
People have expectations and you know,
When you expect it to be a certain way all the time,
Like you're supposed to be happy all the time and then you go over to your friend's house and you're just so like in this mood that I'm in and it's so quiet and so deathly boring and so like almost depressing for everyone.
And you're like,
Sorry about that.
But really,
You're not sorry because why should you be sorry?
Heidi said,
Look,
How about this,
Cherry?
How about you just sit and you can just be and you don't have to force yourself to be all excited or happy or funny or anything else for anybody else.
You can just sit here on this chair next to the fish pond,
Watch the fish and we'll start getting to work on the tree house.
How about that?
The kids all said,
We can start anyway.
We can start now.
Heidi said,
That would be great.
Thank you.
What was awesome was Mabel and Murphy,
The border collies,
The doggies were helping everyone by fetching them wood.
They were carrying the big planks of wood in their mouth like they just found a stick or something in the forest and they were bringing it to everyone when they needed a piece of wood or if they needed the pole or if they needed like a special cloth that they were going to use.
They were going to use a tarp for the roof of the tree house because they thought that might be cool because then the rain wouldn't get in but also there would still be like a fresh air kind of breeze in the tree house.
The dogs were great at just fetching and taking and carrying.
They were awesome help.
Cherry just sat by the fish.
She was just quiet,
Really quiet.
And because she was quiet and she wasn't talking and being busy or being noisy or being silly,
She was just quiet.
It gave her time to think about herself.
It gave her time to think about maybe why she was being quiet.
She really still couldn't think of any particular reason.
It wasn't like mom and dad were fighting or she'd been falling out with Faire or Heidi or she was really happy actually that all of her friends were there and she got to meet the new doggies.
She just couldn't put a finger on it.
But then the more she thought about it,
The more she got worried that maybe people wouldn't like her if she wasn't funny or being the center of attention or just being the class clown kind of personality.
What if that's all that people liked her for and now that she was in this mood that was very solemn and quiet and to anyone on the outside,
It might have looked like she was depressed or something or really sad about something.
She was worried that people wouldn't like her anymore,
That her friends wouldn't like her anymore.
She wasn't really worried about Heidi and Faire not liking her anymore because they were family and they loved her no matter what.
But she was worried about people that weren't as close,
What they would think about her.
She tried a couple of times to go play and get up and go help build and crack jokes and be silly and do what she normally does.
But it just felt wrong.
It felt really forced.
So she went and sat back down with the fish.
Faire kept checking on her and going over and seeing if she was okay and she kept saying,
Yeah,
I'm fine,
I'm fine,
But really she was just quiet.
Faire went over to Heidi and said,
You know,
Me thinks it should be okay when we have quiet days.
It makes me really sad to see Cherry trying to be funny when she doesn't feel like it.
Me thinks that we should be able to have all the different emotions and not be judged for being quiet or shy or sad or whatever.
Heidi said,
I know,
I think you're right.
You know,
I remember,
Corey said one time that when she was small,
When she was quiet,
Everyone used to say that she was really moody,
Really moody.
You're so moody.
What's wrong?
Smile.
And that used to really upset Corey.
And then when she got older,
She thought that she had to be funny and loud and always silly or always chatty for people to like her.
But really,
Corey just was quiet sometimes and moody sometimes.
And that's what happens when you're sensitive and you can feel all the different people's emotions,
Including your own.
Maybe Cherry's like that and she just didn't even realize.
Faire said,
I don't know.
I mean,
It's really rare that Cherry is quiet like this.
That sounds more like you're quiet more often.
Heidi said,
Yeah,
Yeah,
You're right.
But that doesn't mean Cherry's not allowed to have a quiet day or be in a quiet mood or just be kind of withdrawn and want to be alone.
Adeline said,
I like being alone sometimes.
Tyler and Sharlee said,
Yeah,
I think it's okay to be on your own sometimes.
It's nice.
Caitlin and Gabriella,
Cooper and Jack were building the sides of the treehouse.
And they all agreed that sometimes it's okay to have quiet moods or quiet moments or just to be,
You know,
Kind of reserved.
Cherry was listening to everyone's conversation.
OMG,
You guys,
She said.
It's so nice.
It's so nice to have friends that understand that you're not always in a good mood.
It's so nice to have family that loves you no matter what.
And it's so nice to have friends that just appreciate you even on days where you're not quite yourself.
It makes me feel like I can be myself.
I can be authentic.
I don't have to pretend I'm somebody else just so people like me.
I can just be me and that's okay.
And you know what?
You know what?
If you guys all came over and said,
You're so moody like Kori used to get,
Or you're so.
.
.
What's wrong with you?
Smile like Kori used to get,
Then you know what?
I don't think you're very good friends.
That's what I'd think.
I'd say to myself,
You know what?
If you don't like me being in a quiet mood,
Then you can just go home because this is just me and you have to accept 100% to me.
Heidi said,
Oh,
That's really good.
That's good,
Cherry.
Thank goodness you're not worrying about it anymore.
Thank goodness you're just embracing being who you are.
Kori would be really proud of you.
Cherry said,
Yeah,
I know.
I know she would because you know,
Why would we have all these different emotions if we weren't allowed to feel them?
Answer me that,
Riddle.
Right?
I mean,
If we were only always supposed to be happy,
Why is this such a thing as sadness?
If we were always supposed to be really grateful,
Why is this such a thing as jealousy or envy?
If we were always supposed to be happy,
Why is this such a thing as.
.
.
Oh,
I know.
I think I said that.
Did I say that already?
I don't know.
Anyway,
Yeah,
You get my point,
Don't you?
We have like all these different flavors of the way we're supposed to feel and I think we should just be able to feel them.
Cherry put her front paws up in the air and said,
Hooray for emotions.
Everybody joined in.
Hooray for emotions.
Hooray for emotions,
Said Veya.
All the kids clapped and said,
Do you feel like joining us now,
Cherry?
Cherry said,
No,
Not really.
But if it's OK with you guys,
I think I might go and play with Mabel and Murphy because they're so cute.
They're so cute.
And then maybe they want to sit and play with the fishies with me because they're so cute.
They're so cute.
Yeah,
So yeah,
You're doing such a good job,
Though.
I don't think we're going to get finished this weekend because,
You know,
If I was helping,
I'm sure we would.
But,
You know,
I'm sorry I'm not helping.
But,
You know,
It's OK because we will get this treehouse fixed whenever we need to.
We will get it done whenever we're supposed to.
Right?
Because this is like a family affair.
It's like a friend family affair.
And we're doing it and we're going to do it.
We're going to get it done.
Right?
Right.
Cherry went to play with the dogs,
Mabel and Murphy.
She was rolling around on the grass pretending at one point that she was a grass angel,
Like when you do snow angels in the snow.
And then the dogs were sniffing her and rubbing her with the wet noses.
And she thought that was really funny.
Luckily,
The dogs were very nice with her and they didn't want to eat her like Tucker because,
You know,
Tucker likes cats and kittens and puppies.
They were very nice dogs.
Cooper and Jack,
Obviously,
Were doing a very good job with looking after these dogs and taking care of them and making them into very nice dogs.
Caitlin,
Gabriella,
Cooper and Jack,
Tyler,
Charlie and Adeline all went home.
It had been a really long day.
The cats got cleaned up for bed,
Brushed their teeth and finally fell into their big,
Soft,
Comfortable cat bed.
They snuggled in together.
Mary fell asleep first,
Then Vea.
And finally,
After Heidi had had a good long look at her younger sisters,
She closed her eyes with appreciation and lots of love and gratitude that she had them in her life.
The end.
