We (myself, the three Kewl girls and a Mary Poppins freak) had a 2 and a half hour road trip today. Well, it was three hours really, by the time you factor in 50 gazillion toilet stops. (For me, that is, not the girls!)
As a touring freak, I spent a lot of time on the road and I got very good at amusing myself with travel games. One of my favourites was, and still is, license plate words. That is - taking the three letters from a passing license plate and coming up with a phase using words beginning with each letter.
Today, about an hour into our trip, we turned off the busy main roads and began winding our way inland. This is my favourite kind of travel - removed enough to be quiet, but not so isolated that it becomes unnerving. The passing traffic dwindled in volume until there was just one car every 10 minutes or so, and a calm settled over the car. The girls either window gazed or amused themselves quietly and Mary Poppins and I enjoyed the greening landscape after too many days in the city.
It was just lovely, being with my four favourite women in the world, all drifting with our own thoughts. I must have been a good few miles away when the bright red shine of a car approaching in the opposite direction caught my eye and drew me back to the present moment. As it got closer, more out of habit than anything else, I looked for the 3 letters on the license plate.
ZSH
My thoughts went immediately to Z.
Z is for Zy.
Then I wondered if maybe it was Zy saying hello...
H... Hello...
Hmm. Of course it was.
ZSH - Zy Says Hi.
By the time my thoughts rested on this the car had long passed - but I said it aloud, anyway. And so Did Mary Poppins.
In perfect sync, we both said softly, "Zy Says Hi".
Naturally, when the next car approached we were both ready and waiting to catch the license plate.
LIZ
Again we spoke softly and in unison,
"Look! It's Zy."
When we spotted the next car in the distance their was absolutely no doubt in our minds that Zy would say hello again.
And he did.
As the car drew closer I drew myself up tall in my seat. Once more we spotted the letters at the same time and once more we spoke in perfect unison -
HFZ
"Hi From Zy."
We didn't pass any more cars again before it was time for another loo stop, and so a break in our momentum - but I didn't need any more confirmation that our little Warrior was in the car with us today.
Thank you, darling Zy.
I will always be watching and listening for you.
For Zy, Our Warrior
Once upon a chocolate rainbow, there lived two candy clouds called Pink M and Blue M.
Pink M wasn't always called Pink M - because she wasn't always pink! When she was a small sugar puff cloud, her soft, warm, marshmallow centre was covered in a thin white fairy floss icing. Her colour was quite magical, because it came from the love that spread over her entire cloud body, the very first time she saw her candy man cloud - Blue M.
Blue M got his colour from the deep blue sea, where he spent many of his days bobbing up and down like a tic tac in teacup. When he saw the beautiful rosy glow of Pink M, floating high above the chocolate rainbow, Blue M shook the deep blue ocean drops from his cloudy eyes and watered his way up to the deep blue sky, where he and Pink M became a sweet like sugar Candy Couple.
Together they spent their days floating along the chocolate rainbow, sprinkling a little sugar here and scattering some cinnamon starlets there, until one day they noticed something strange. Although they both had baskets full of the sweetest sensations imaginable, they both also had strange feelings bubbling up from their soft marshmallow cloud centres and making their outer candy colours run and drip and fade.
"My basket feels empty!" said Pink M, "Even though it looks full."
"Mine, too!" agreed Blue M. "And look! Every time I try to pick up some sweetness, it just slips right through my fingers."
The Candy Couple floated still for a while, in quiet contemplation, until finally Blue M said, "Maybe if we had someone to share our sweetness with - our own precious little sugar puff cloud - maybe then your basket wouldn't feel so empty and my sugar crystals wouldn't slip from my fingers so quickly."
"I think you're right, Blue M," said Pink M. "But how can we ever have our own sugar puff cloud when we don't have a baby basket to grow one in?"
Blue M thought so hard that his thought bubble burst and it showered drops of left over blue ocean onto the rainbow underneath him. He tried thinking again, but when he still could not come up with an answer, more blue ocean drops began falling from his eyes.
"Maybe it is just not meant to be," said Pink M.
As she spoke, big, fat, salty tears began rolling down her pink cloud cheeks, stripping them of their colour and sweetness, and running away into the sky.
"Hey!" cried a voice from not too far away. "Where are these pink and blue polka dots coming from?!"
It was the Candy Couple's friend, Chocolate Freckle.
"I have enough sweet spots without yours as well, my Candy friends. Stop with your crying already and pass me the chocolate! Then you had better get your sugar puff sprinkles together, because I have a baby basket but not enough ingredients to put in it. We can can grow your very own sugar puff cloud in there!"
And so, Pink M and Blue M mixed up all the sweet-essentials for their very own sugar puff cloud and they put them into Chocolate Freckle's baby basket, where something very magical happened...
The sweetest, most perfect little sugar puff cloud began to grow!!
He was a precious purple mix of Pink M and Blue M, with a soft centre and sweet iced coating, and he had magnificent, brightly coloured polka dot freckles from his Chocolate Freckle growing basket.
Everyone waited impatiently as the magical sweetness swirled it's way around the baby sugar puff cloud in his borrowed baby basket. Then the baby sugar puff cloud became impatient too! He decided he had had enough of basket weaving magic and he wanted to come out and weave some more magic of his own!
The little sugar puff cloud left his baby basket and he entered a new world - A world that wasn't ready for his love, or his magic, or his sweetness.
Or his brightly coloured polka dot freckles!
No, the outside world was not made for the little baby puff cloud, and it was so very cruel to him. It made fun of his polka dot freckles and it attacked his sweetness. It tore holes in his soft, white cloud wisps and it tried to drip horrible, dark, stinky negativity into his wounds.
But the outside world underestimated the little baby sugar puff cloud.
He had a whole lot more than a soft white marshmallow heart...
He had a mighty warrior heart!
For 26 hours he battled, and even as the harshness of the outside world slowly destroyed his sugar puff cloud body, something else - something so very magical - was happening.
The outside world could melt his polka dot freckles and suck out his marshmallow centre, but there was nothing in the whole entire universe that could fade his magic, his light or his love.
With each moment that passed the wisps of his cloud body fell away, but the light from his warrior heart was growing stronger and stronger and stronger. It was brilliant and bright and white, and it beamed out from his warrior heart, filling all of the other hearts in the world with his sweet sugary goodness, until finally his own heart did not need to beat any more, because it was beating inside the hearts of all of the people who loved him.
The Warrior's sugar puff cloud is gone now, but we don't need his body to have him with us.
Listen carefully to the silence, and you will hear his magic.
Look up into the sky at night time, and you will see his light and all of the other star hearts that are twinkling for him.
Best of all, put your hand on your own heart, and you will feel the beating of his love.
~*~
Four weeks ago, our little warrior's body drifted away...
But his magic still surrounds us,
His light continues to shine in our world,
And his love will always beat with our hearts.
For Baby Zy,
With all of our love.
Pink M wasn't always called Pink M - because she wasn't always pink! When she was a small sugar puff cloud, her soft, warm, marshmallow centre was covered in a thin white fairy floss icing. Her colour was quite magical, because it came from the love that spread over her entire cloud body, the very first time she saw her candy man cloud - Blue M.
Blue M got his colour from the deep blue sea, where he spent many of his days bobbing up and down like a tic tac in teacup. When he saw the beautiful rosy glow of Pink M, floating high above the chocolate rainbow, Blue M shook the deep blue ocean drops from his cloudy eyes and watered his way up to the deep blue sky, where he and Pink M became a sweet like sugar Candy Couple.
Together they spent their days floating along the chocolate rainbow, sprinkling a little sugar here and scattering some cinnamon starlets there, until one day they noticed something strange. Although they both had baskets full of the sweetest sensations imaginable, they both also had strange feelings bubbling up from their soft marshmallow cloud centres and making their outer candy colours run and drip and fade.
"My basket feels empty!" said Pink M, "Even though it looks full."
"Mine, too!" agreed Blue M. "And look! Every time I try to pick up some sweetness, it just slips right through my fingers."
The Candy Couple floated still for a while, in quiet contemplation, until finally Blue M said, "Maybe if we had someone to share our sweetness with - our own precious little sugar puff cloud - maybe then your basket wouldn't feel so empty and my sugar crystals wouldn't slip from my fingers so quickly."
"I think you're right, Blue M," said Pink M. "But how can we ever have our own sugar puff cloud when we don't have a baby basket to grow one in?"
Blue M thought so hard that his thought bubble burst and it showered drops of left over blue ocean onto the rainbow underneath him. He tried thinking again, but when he still could not come up with an answer, more blue ocean drops began falling from his eyes.
"Maybe it is just not meant to be," said Pink M.
As she spoke, big, fat, salty tears began rolling down her pink cloud cheeks, stripping them of their colour and sweetness, and running away into the sky.
"Hey!" cried a voice from not too far away. "Where are these pink and blue polka dots coming from?!"
It was the Candy Couple's friend, Chocolate Freckle.
"I have enough sweet spots without yours as well, my Candy friends. Stop with your crying already and pass me the chocolate! Then you had better get your sugar puff sprinkles together, because I have a baby basket but not enough ingredients to put in it. We can can grow your very own sugar puff cloud in there!"
And so, Pink M and Blue M mixed up all the sweet-essentials for their very own sugar puff cloud and they put them into Chocolate Freckle's baby basket, where something very magical happened...
The sweetest, most perfect little sugar puff cloud began to grow!!
He was a precious purple mix of Pink M and Blue M, with a soft centre and sweet iced coating, and he had magnificent, brightly coloured polka dot freckles from his Chocolate Freckle growing basket.
Everyone waited impatiently as the magical sweetness swirled it's way around the baby sugar puff cloud in his borrowed baby basket. Then the baby sugar puff cloud became impatient too! He decided he had had enough of basket weaving magic and he wanted to come out and weave some more magic of his own!
The little sugar puff cloud left his baby basket and he entered a new world - A world that wasn't ready for his love, or his magic, or his sweetness.
Or his brightly coloured polka dot freckles!
No, the outside world was not made for the little baby puff cloud, and it was so very cruel to him. It made fun of his polka dot freckles and it attacked his sweetness. It tore holes in his soft, white cloud wisps and it tried to drip horrible, dark, stinky negativity into his wounds.
But the outside world underestimated the little baby sugar puff cloud.
He had a whole lot more than a soft white marshmallow heart...
He had a mighty warrior heart!
For 26 hours he battled, and even as the harshness of the outside world slowly destroyed his sugar puff cloud body, something else - something so very magical - was happening.
The outside world could melt his polka dot freckles and suck out his marshmallow centre, but there was nothing in the whole entire universe that could fade his magic, his light or his love.
With each moment that passed the wisps of his cloud body fell away, but the light from his warrior heart was growing stronger and stronger and stronger. It was brilliant and bright and white, and it beamed out from his warrior heart, filling all of the other hearts in the world with his sweet sugary goodness, until finally his own heart did not need to beat any more, because it was beating inside the hearts of all of the people who loved him.
The Warrior's sugar puff cloud is gone now, but we don't need his body to have him with us.
Listen carefully to the silence, and you will hear his magic.
Look up into the sky at night time, and you will see his light and all of the other star hearts that are twinkling for him.
Best of all, put your hand on your own heart, and you will feel the beating of his love.
~*~
Four weeks ago, our little warrior's body drifted away...
But his magic still surrounds us,
His light continues to shine in our world,
And his love will always beat with our hearts.
For Baby Zy,
With all of our love.
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