Lily the Frog

Lily is a small green frog-kid with bright round eyes and strong back legs. She lives at the pond, where two grassy banks sit across the water from each other. On one bank is home. On the other bank is the sunny lily-meadow where all the pond friends want to go.

But there is water in between. And Lily will not hop across water.

Not because she is scared. Because Lily has one gentle rule, and the rule is this: “Join the banks first. Then hop.”

So Lily waits. She watches the lily pads. One pad floats near her bank. Another floats a little farther. Another. When the pads make a chain — pad touching pad touching pad, all the way across — the two banks are joined. They are connected. Now, and only now, Lily hops: hop, hop, hop, hop — across the joined pads to the other side.

That is Lily’s whole gentle teaching.

Join the banks. Then hop.

If there is a gap — one pad missing in the middle — the banks are not joined yet. Lily peeks at the gap. She does not hop into water. She waits for one more pad to fill the gap. When the last gap is filled, the chain is whole, the banks are one path, and whoosh — Lily crosses!

Sometimes a little friend says, “Just jump, Lily! Hurry!” And Lily smiles and says, “When the pads join, I will fly across. Until then, we build.” Lily is never cross about it. She just points at the gap and says, “One more pad, right there.”

A grown-up can play too! You can be a pad. Lay a cushion, then another cushion, then another, all in a line across the floor — from the sofa to the door. When the line has no gaps, the sofa and the door are joined. Now hop along the cushions like Lily: hop, hop, hop! If there is a gap, don’t hop into the gap — lay one more cushion first. Then hop.

That is connection. A line of things that JOINS one side to the other side. When it is truly joined, you can cross.

When the last pad clicks into place and the two banks become one path, Lily feels a warm, glad whoosh inside — the happy feeling of something finally joining up. She croaks a soft, proud croak. “Joined,” she says. “Now we cross — together.”

And they do. Every pond friend hops across the joined pads, into the sunny lily-meadow, side by side.

Join the banks. Then hop. That’s Lily.