If You Go Out to the Woods Today

Hey, I am Darby, the Dark Brown Teddy Bear. Now I am not like Ruby or Tigger or Babby.  I have no clue where I came from. My first memory is Christmas Muzak at a big department store where hundreds of Teddy Bears were for sale.  As the shoppers pushed and shoved, picking me up, throwing me down, I screamed, though no one heard, ‘Me, pick me.’  I can’t say for sure if Momma heard me or was it telepathy? I was so relieved to be leaving behind bedlam to go to a forever home, assigned a master.

I had big plans.  I should have known Momma had even grander plans.  As we drove home she explained that I was to be a Love Teddy Bear.  ‘What’s that Momma?’  ‘I chose you with care. You are to bring comfort and security to those who are in need.  Your very presence will remind them they are beloved, even in the darkest hours. In between missions, you will have a place of honour on the old trunk, from my ancestors, in my bedroom.’ I could feel my chest expand with pride. Just the perfect assignment for a Teddy Bear like me.

The very first ‘being’ I met sitting on the old trunk was the Very Yellow Light Bulb Teddy Bear who had been gifted to Wonder Boy at his birth. Light Bulb was named by Wonder Boy who had such an obsession with light that it is the first word he said, at six months so I am told. I wasn’t there so I can not confirm or deny the facts presented. It does not matter. I love Little Light Bulb, dressed in a  Wonder Boy’s onesie, clutching flowers and ribbons, that were in the same gift basket  that Light Bulb came in.

Now it is summer and we all wait with bated breath because this is the time of the All Things Plush Picnic. Ruby, The Incredibly Wide Eyed Monkey goes, as well as Tigger,  Babby and of course the two Teddy Bears – myself,  Dark Brown Darby and my best buddy, Little Yellow Light Bulb.

If we have been good all year, (LOL – what can the inanimate be ???) we may even be the guests of honor at the annual All Things Plush Extravaganza, held deep in the woods, away from watchful eyes and nosy spies. But it is not only a picnic.  Sure we eat teeny cucumber sandwiches and shortbread, drink lemonade.  But it is also a convention of sorts to toss around theories, talk about the good old days and catch up with what has happened in the lives of All Things Plush.  As we march along, carrying picnic baskets of goodies, we sing and whistle, skipping along merrily, avoiding the cobwebs and thistles along the path to our secret destination.

There is something else that is very special.  We always send out an invitation to the fairies and  wee people. It seems both the Two Footed and the Four Footed can not see them, so they do not give credit to how much they contribute to the world at large.

Well…, I have seen them in action in Momma’s front garden. Maybe if she can not see or hear, at least she feels them, like a magnet drawn to metal. And Jakita, so super sensitive, she feels everything!  But we (All Things Plush) see, hear and feel the  fairies and wee people. We know how they mystically reverse attitudes, right wrongs, and magically appear in a life that cries for their healing power.

So if you go out to the woods on a summer afternoon, tread lightly and maybe you will be fortunate enough to see us sitting in a circle, talking, laughing, or maybe dancing a jig or eating our teeny cucumber sandwiches, the wee people, taking shelter at the crackle of a footstep. But don’t bring your cameras. The photos do not develop, I am told.

I know, I know there is no scientific proof, but we are out there, if only you believe.