The Bunny Who Drank Vegetable Juice

[Scott Tweedie]

The old school house at the base of a giant redwood tree is where we
begin the story...

One day while all the bunnies were hard at work at their little
mushroom desks, writing poetry and stories, a lesson in life popped
out of the air (but not quite as loud as something you'd hear).
Anyway, Furry Teacher Badger was wandering around the classtree,
peeking over the eager and creative bunnies' shoulders and saw that
one of the more timid little bunnies had been writing ungrammatical
and unstructured words--words which were painted very colorfully and
beautifully...like the vibrant forest, right outside of the class
tree. But the Furry Teacher Badger thought hastily to tell the
creative and timid little bunny a criticism that might influence him
to be "more like the rest of them." So the Furry Teacher Badger said
while peeking over the little bunny's shoulder reading:
"Birds fly the ocean blue
We can walk in the sky too
This tree may jump to paper, boo
And hoo I cry from within you?"

"What are these words trying to say?" asked Furry Teacher Badger.
"They make no sense to me. Surely, you must have made a mistake in
your writing." And the timid little bunny looked down at his square
little window poem and it didn't look like the window of his enchanted
forest imagination anymore--it looked like a squooshed piece of tree
skin with nonsense scribble on it...but only for one moment. Because,
at the very next moment, a compassionate bunny (in fact The Bunny Who
Drank Vegetable Juice) realized the lesson was popping out of the air
and into the story. And he was moved to speak up...he said

"Mistakes that we make
build the bridges of thought.
So how can we cross them
if we learn that they're not?
We will fall in the river
if we listen to you.
For you're stealing the pieces
from under our shoe."

And he went over and hugged the timid and creative little bunny, who
was already grinning ear to floppy ear, flying out the window with
hummingbird, riding on the magic words that were spoken on his behalf.
Now Furry Teacher Badger wasn't a genius, but he knew when truth had
stung him on the forehead. It was obvious that Furry Teacher Badger
was once an innocent and creative youth like the bunnies and had been
reprimanded as an easy scapegoat just as the little timid bunny was.
He remembered way back in his spiral memory to when he was but a wee
badger in school...and something he felt he had written and was a
treasure was turned to sand by the harsh and hasty judgement of a
jealous teacher...and he was humbled by that popping noise that's only
heard in words in this story. And as this lesson was ballooning in far
too many ways to achieve a balance of peace, The Bunny Who Drank
Vegetable Juice let the air out of the overstretched balloon and went
over to Furry Teacher Badger and gave him a big hug too... everyone
sighed a big sigh of relief. They all hopped outside of the classtree
and into the fresh air and drank vegetable juice together near a
waterfall...and they sang happy songs together until it was time to go
home.