a children's book for tigerlily

Happy Friday! What's everyone doing for the 4th of July? I'll probably be posting mostly pictures this weekend from whatever shenanigans go on-- I think we're going to the beach tomorrow. But for now, I'll leave you with this children's book I've been working on about Tigerlily. Corinne and I have been planning several of my stories for children's books-- her paintings & drawings are so amazing! But this one kind of snuck up/took over my imagination. This is hardly the final version (Especially since I haven't seen any of the art yet) but it'll go something like this. (On a side note, I have another friend with an amazing idea for a children's book. I can't wait to see hers someday. Not to mention, her twins!)

Tigerlily

Everyone knew that Tigerlily was special because the Earth shook and the ground shifted, just so she could come into the world. 

In fact, every single thing that made up the world of her mother and her father and her grandparents and her favorite aunt turned inside out reversed in the weeks leading up to that day that she was born.

After the first time the earth shook, while she was still in her mother’s belly, Tigerlily’s grandmother  (who was cooler than grandmothers probably should be) sat down at the kitchen table and called all the women over to her. 

She pulled out a deck of taro cards and all the women understood. They needed to know more about the Indigo child who was on her way. And needed to know what kind of journey she would take all of them on when she entered. 

Something had shifted the earth, and Tigerlily (inside her mother) along with her favorite aunt, her grandmother and the rest of her mother’s family, were on one side of the great divide. And her father was on the other side. 

He was very loud. He called out to everyone on the other side. And he kept saying he would find a way to cross the canyon that had formed, but he just stood there, calling out. 

At first, Tigerlily’s mother was beside herself because she was separated from Tigerlily’s father and she was frantic about whether he would be back in time for Tigerlily to be born. 

Mother would curl up and go to sleep as close to the edge of the canyon as possible, so she could try to be as close to her husband as she possibly could be. Even though, with each passing day, a new piece of the earth would shift and rise, or fall away, Tigerlily’s mother stayed close to the gap between the patches of land. 

On the day that Tigerlily was born, the earth had its largest movement. Mountains sprung up out of nowwhere, and trees grew one hundred feet in a moment and rivers stretched from the places she touched out into infinity. 

Even still, the land around where Tigerlily was born grew into a meadow, but did not move and everything was peaceful on her side of the canyon.

On her father’s side though, it was loud. He kept calling out to the women on the other side, but they couldn’t hear him over the sound of the peace that Tigerlily was making. And even though the ground didn’t shift or jut up in front of Tigerlily’s father, the land seemed to recede and disappear each time he said, “I’m finding a way back right now. I promise.” 

And each time he said, “I promise,” but remained still, his piece of rock looked more and more like a desert and another flower grew somewhere on the land of Tigerlily. 

When Tigerlily’s mother held her up so that her father could see her, Tigerlily whispered to her father with her eyes the way to climb down from his rock, and over to hers. But her father could not hear her over the noise he was making with promises. 

One day, he called out, “I’m coming over now! This time I can do it! I’m coming over so I can be the best father ever.” He walked backwards, into the distance, in the opposite direction from the place to climb down, and then they didn’t see him anymore. 

He never re-emerged on either side, but each day that Tigerlily grew older and bigger, more things grew around her. Soon, they were all living in a rainforest filled with the promises they had made to love each other. And everyone was so happy to live in a land made of this material. 

Every once in a while, Tigerlily and her mother and grandmother and favorite aunt would end up at the edge of the land, where the canyon stretched out wide and deep before them. The other side was barren. Nothing grew there. 

“Mother,” Tigerlily asked, “Would that land still be empty if I had not come to shift the earth?”

“It’s hard to say,” answered her mother. “On one hand, the water from the river could have caused things to grow.”

“But,” said her grandmother, “that land is also made of stone and not soil.”

“More than that,” said the aunt, “the land is small and not the only land. It’s a steep journey, but everyone knows the way from that land to this land. You told us yourself.”