Only A Happy Fish Can Go to the Moon
B.U.Hub Publication Contest, Universe-Love-Soul.
Goohmi’s Moon Journey is a children’s story but adults can enjoy and learn from it as well. When our minds are eternally inquisitive, we discover magic again and again.
Goohmi always dreams of going to the moon.
It is, however, a foolish dream. That’s what the other fishes say.
They tell her: “You can’t go to the moon, you’re just a fish. Stay home and play.”
There’s one fish who believes in Goohmi. She is Aunt Winka, who is unkindly called a foolish fish.
But Goohmi thinks Aunt Winka is wise, maybe strange but full of spice.
Aunt Winka tells her the secret behind making her dream come true.
“Close your eyes and be still. Listen to the sound of the ocean. Feel the excitement as you see yourself swimming on the moon.”
Her eyes closed, Goohmi feels herself float above the sea. She gets closer and closer to the moon, her heart beating faster.
Then she remembers what they said: “You are just a fish.”
She immediately opens her eyes and says, “Aunt Winka, I can’t.”
“Don’t worry, you can imagine yourself being carried to the moon by a diver and an astronaut,” Aunt Winka says.
So Goohmi closes her eyes again and resumes her moon journey.
But as soon as she nears the moon, she sees herself dropping back to sea, being pulled by the water and fishes and all sea creatures — everything that she loves in her ocean world.
She opens her eyes again and says — “Aunt Winka I can’t!”
“Then go out and play,” says Winka the foolish fish. “Better to be playing than worrying.”
Goohmi plays with so much glee she forgets her fears behind.
“Will you have as much fun when you’re on the moon?” Aunt Winka asks.
“Yes! The moon will be as much fun as the ocean, I can have fun anywhere I go!” Goohmi exclaims as she plays some more.
And when she sleeps at night she dreams…
Then one day, an excited Goohmi with eyes closed, exclaims —
“I’m on the moon, playing with friends!”
“You did it! You’re amazing!” says the much-delighted Aunt Winka.
“Aah Goohmi the foolish fish,” the other fishes would say whenever they see her with eyes closed.
“She’s dreaming again.”
One day they look up at the moon and see Goohmi waving at them. They could not believe it. How did she get there?
They talk among themselves:
“It’s that foolish Winka’s fault. Poor Goohmi, what is she going to do on the moon?”
“Well she did get her dream didn’t she? Good for her. I wish I too could make my dreams come true.”
“Hmmm, maybe Winka is not foolish after all.”
And then it happened.
The End.
Text and Art by Joji Balcita. Copyright 2023. Ebook at Google Play Books and high quality digital file for printing are available at my Buy Me A Coffee site.
Here’s a video version!
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