Dear Minti parents,

This is a story about feelings that I drafted after working with my emotionally sensitive daughter on how to handle her feelings. Eden, age 8, described her day to me and told me that she felt like "all the feelings people dropped on the

ground jumped on" her. Jen Lemen gave me the idea of framing her high sensitivity as a superpower. Then, I put it all together and dreamed up the dragon imagry, which I use with Eden as a guided visualization when she feels overwhelmed.

I'm thinking of schlepping this around to some publishers, so any feed back you could give me about how your kids would receive this story, or what I might improve upon, please let me know.

Much Shalom!

Rachelle

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Once upon a time there was a girl named Zoë.

Zoë looked like an ordinary girl.
Zoë did ordinary girl things.
But Zoë was not an ordinary girl.

Zoë had a secret superpower.

Zoë’s secret superpower was not turning invisible, or running faster than any kid that ever lived, or being able to zap brussel sprouts off her plate when her mother wasn’t looking. Zoë’s superpower was that she was very very good at Emotions.

Zoë carried around a lot of her own Emotions.

“Wow! I did so great on the spelling test! The best EVER. I bet I’m the bestest speller in the whole WORLD”

And…

“Oh, I didn’t get to Rosie on the bus! In fact, I hardly EVER get to sit next to Rosie on the bus. I bet I never, Never, EVER get to sit next to Rosie on the bus again!”

But Zoe alos carried around a lot of other people’s emotions.

“Teacher seems sad today, I wonder what’s the matter? Maybe her dog is sick. Maybe she didn’t get a dessert in her lunch today. Maybe she’s got a stomach ache. Oh! I feel sad now too!”

And…

“The people at this grown-up party are talking so loud and laughing so much! They must be really excited. I feel excited! Maybe I’ll run around in circles giving everyone humongous hugs!”

But most super-powerish of all was Zoë’s Magnetic Emotion Catcher. You, see everywhere Zoë went—to the grocery story, or to swimming lessons, or to her best friend’s birthday party—all the Emotions that people had dropped on the ground jumped up towards Zoë and stuck like magnets to her superhero cape. Some of the Emotions were happy Emotions. But a lot of the emotions were hard emotions – because those were mostly the kind that people left lying around. Poor Zoë, she would get so stuck-up with Emotions she could hardly lift her superhero boots off the ground!

Now, you may not know this, but sometimes even superheroes need someone to come to their rescue. Luckily, Zoë knew Godmother, who also had super powers, and she could call Godmother by sending out her Secret Code Radar Beamer, which lived sort of between her eyes and slightly under her eyebrows, right along the edge of her super hero mask. When her Magnetic Emotion Catcher made her get too heavy, Zoë beamed a message to Godmother.

Godmother lived in some beautiful hidden place Zoë had never seen. But that was okay with Zoë, because Godmother herself was so beautiful all Zoë wanted to do was look it just her. Godmother had long golden hair, and flowing silver robes, and beautiful purple eyes. When she came to Zoë, Zoë did not even have to use words. Godmother just knew what Zoë need help with. Godmother saw right away that Zoë was all stuck down with too many Emotions.

Now, Zoë did not want to lose her Emotion superpower – she liked the good emotions, and she like being able to tell what people were feeling even from far away. But she did not like being stuck to the ground with so many hard emotions. So Godmother showed Zoë a special trick. With a wave of her hands she called down a whole flock of tiny flying dragons. The dragons smiled and flitted around Zoë’s head. They flashed their green and purple scales this way and that. They showed off their bright red wings and gave of tiny firework-shots of orange dragon-flame breath. Zoë liked watching them dance a circus in the sky.

Godmother told Zoë that she could call the dragon cloud down by picturing them in her mind. Then, she showed Zoë how to tie the heavy Emotions to the dragons with the tiny ribbons that dangled down the dragon’s backs. Zoë did not think such tiny dragons could carry such heavy Emotions! But as soon as Godmother had tied the knots, up the dragons flew, carrying away the hard Emotions as though they were birthday balloons.

Where did they go? Godmother never said. But Zoë imagined that maybe they really were birthday balloons, celebrating some grown up superhero party in the sky. (She still didn’t want to go there, though. She liked being a kid super hero right her in her own backyard.)

Of course, one or two of the hard Emotions stayed with Zoë, but these were the ones that belonged to her, not the extras she had picked up from the floor. Godmother promised they would not be too heavy for Zoë to carry. And to prove it, Godmother held Zoë’s hand, and light as a feather, off they both flew–Godmother’s robes rustling in the wind, and Zoë’s cape floating out lightly behind.

The End