Once upon a time, or maybe just the other day, there lived a little creature in the forest.
Yes, a little creature. That was its name.
No one really knew what it was—
a bit furry, a bit smooth,
a little round, a little… well, just a creature.
The little creature was different.
Not weird. Not bad. Just different.
And the other animals didn’t quite know what to think.
“Uh, so what are you supposed to be?”
“Are you like… a bat without wings?” asked the bat.
“You look like a pinecone with legs!” giggled the marten.
“Your ears look like peaches!” squeaked the chickadee, almost falling off her branch.
The little creature just smiled.
But at night, snuggled in the moss, it started to wonder.
“Hmmm… Who am I? Maybe I should be more like the others.
Maybe more fox-y. Or badger-y.
Or maybe I should fix my ears somehow?”
So in the morning, the little creature got to work.
It tried howling like a wolf, but it sounded like a spoon rattling in a pot.
It tried climbing trees like a squirrel, but it fell right into the raspberries.
It tried standing on one leg like a heron. It toppled. Then it toppled again. Then it just sat down.
After a whole week of copying everyone,
the little creature was covered in pine needles, cobwebs, leaves,
three worms, and one very annoyed ladybug.
“Copying others just doesn’t work for me,” it sighed, sitting down on a stump.
From under the stump, a little mouse popped out with a teacup.
“Hello, creature,” said the mouse.
“Hi…” mumbled the creature.
“Why do you have a feather on your head and an acorn around your neck?”
“I wanted to be more like the others…”
“Why?”
“So I could be… better?”
The mouse sipped her strawberry tea, twitched her whiskers, and said:
“That’s the silliest reason I ever heard.”
“Really?”
“Yup! You’re already wonderful.
Not because you do what others do,
but because you are.”
The little creature blinked.
“But… I can’t really do much! And I don’t look like anyone else.”
“Pfft,” waved the mouse. “You know what you can do? Be you.
And nobody else can do that. See?”
The little creature thought about it.
It took the feather off its head,
pulled the acorn from its neck, and…
just sat there.
It breathed.
It giggled when the ladybug landed on its nose.
It rolled onto its back and stared up at the clouds.
And it felt wonderful.
Not because of what it did.
Not because of what others said.
But because… it was.
In the morning, the marten saw the creature and said:
“Hey, why are you smiling so funny today?”
“Yeah,” nodded the creature.
“Why?”
“I don’t know. I just am.”
Then the bat flew by and stared:
“Whoa, you look different! Like… like… a happy creature!”
The creature grinned.
“That’s because I am a happy creature.”
And the chickadee tilted her head from a nearby tree.
“I like happy creatures! Maybe I could be a happy creature too.
But… how do I do that?”
“Oh no,” said the little creature with a smile.
“You should be a happy chickadee. Just be yourself.”
So the little creature wasn’t the king of the forest,
it couldn’t sing like a nightingale,
and it didn’t have the longest tail in the world.
It was simply different—
and at the same time, perfectly ordinary—
and happy.
It had learned a big mouse-sized truth:
that just being yourself
and enjoying the little things
is the best way to be happy.
And what about you?
Maybe you’re like the little creature.
Maybe sometimes you wonder if you’re enough this way or that way.
Well, here’s a secret:
You are enough.
You always were.
And you always will be.
Because you are you.
And that’s all it takes.
© Interestingbedtimestories.com Author – AraMonaTara
