Maria Magdalena’s MiniYoga for Children – Part 7

Maria Magdalena Bernales

STORY of BINDY & BANDY
Part 1

Excerpt from the book,
“Yoga and Meditation for Children”
written by Fran Rosen and Bonnie Maltby.

  Once, in the land of Juniper Hollow – far, far below the Giant Mountain and very near to the River of Wonder – there lived two elfin brothers. Bindy and Bandy. They looked quite alike, so people called them “twins”… but “alike” they were not at all. Not at all!
Bindy was older by a hair’s tail and a little rounder. He was quite a jolly fellow – always laughing, telling a joke, making the elfins (young elf children) laugh till they cried. Bindy had fuzzy orange hair and a long elfish beard of orange whiskers. He wore bright green vests and sunny yellow shirts every day and kept a fine feather in his hat to top it off just right. Bindy played the fiddle and made up songs that could set the stars to dancing’ and put the moon to sleep. Dear, dear Bindy.
Now, Bandy – on the other hand – was younger by the same hare’s tail and just a little less round than his brother. He wore colors of blue and brown and never looked up… he only looked down. Bandy was as ornery as one elf could be. You couldn’t catch him smiling – else he’d surely deny it. Sometimes when Bandy was in what looked like “feeling good” spirits, he’d start tapping his foot, singing a little song that no one knew the words to (or even knows them now!)

One time, old Tom McGuff’s wagon wheel was stuck knee-deep in mud. He tried all he could, but nothing would move the wagon. Bindy and Bandy were walking’ up through the Juniper Hollow woods when McGuff spotted them. “Look, here”, he called, “can you help me move m’wagon, boys?” Bandy stood back and shook his head. “I can’t”, he said. And he wouldn’t try it either. Bindy looked at the wheel. It looked a might near impossible, stuck as deep as could be in mud. But he said, “Hmm, well, hmm, I think I can”.
McGuff jumped up into the wagon and called to his horses, “giddyup”. Bindy pushed from behind. Well sure enough, with Bindy’s pushing’ and shoving-’ old McGuff’s wagon rolled out of the mud. Bindy shock his head in wonder at what he could do.

   That was just one time. Then there was the day the Crenshaws’ cat got caught in an oak tree and couldn’t get down. Molly Crenshaw was cryin’. “Whiskerless has been caught in that tree for 2 days and no one can get him to come down”. Bindy came by the Crenshaws’ house with wild berries for the kids and Molly called him to her side “Bindy, you´re the only one who can do it”, and Bindy said: “I can”.
He climbed up the tree trunk and all the way to the top. After a short conversation with Whiskerless, who was quite glad he was there, Bindy was down on the ground with the Crenshaws’ cat in his arms. All because he said he could and he did.

That was the same day Bandy, who was floating across Danver’s pond on a wooden raft, slipped and fell into the water.
Bandy CANNOT swim (of course). Everyone was callin’ to him just what to do and all he would say was, “I can’t, I can’t”. It took three elves from the Juniper Hollow Rescue Team to carry poor Bandy from the pond. “I can’t. I won’t. I don’t”.

Why, I even remember when Bindy and Bandy were kids. Their mother taught them how to tie their shoes. Bindy tried and tried. After some time he said, “I can”. And sure enough just then he did! Bandy said. “I can’t” – and he would never even try. One day behind the tool shed in Uncle Wilfer’s yard, Bandy tied his shoes all by himself, but he never told a soul. And poor Bandy’s frown got deeper and deeper. Until one day… Bandy lay asleep in his bed all bundied up on a cold windy night. The winds were blowing and snow began to fall outside. It was the first snow that winter. Just about midnight Bandy heard a knock at the window. He was surprised. He got up slowly and peered out the window. He nearly forgot ‘who’ he was. He jumped up and danced around the room. “It’s snowing!” Bindy slept through all the commotion.

“But who was that at my window?” Bandy thought, and then he asked in a very shaky voice. “Who is there? Who is that? Who is it?” A little golden light shown like a star just below the petunia plant by the windowsill. Bandy looked closer.
He was curious now.
It wasn’t a star; it was a bright little light. “Open the window, it’s cold in the night.” Spoke a teeny tiny voice from the little bright light.
Bandy pushed and pulled, but the window would not budge! He tried again and was just about to give up and say “I can’t”…

Do you want to know what happened to Bandy and the little light?
To be continued…