SOS: Seekers of Spirit – 5 - 8 years old
For beginning and intermediate young reader, these stories are a little longer and are filled with fun characters and situations that help teach empowering decision-making skills. Parents and kids read these stories together and use the questions at the end to start a conversation!

Spunky the Skunk hadn’t seen anyone for a couple of days.  Today he planned on heading down to Frog Pond to catch up with his friends.  Lately he was feeling lonely and insecure, but he didn’t know why.  Even when his friends weren’t around, he knew they were always in his heart.  They were connected.  He was a part of all the good in the world and so was everyone else.  He waddled along the path and could hear some laughter as he approached the pond.  There was a voice he didn’t recognize.  

“Now what am I going to do?  I am not very good at meeting new people.  I just wanted to see my friends.  What now?  I know,  I must trust.  These thoughts are just thoughts that keep me feeling afraid.  If I silence my mind I’ll be in the right place.”  And then he kept on walking.  He walked right through his doubts as he sang, “I must, must, must, trust, trust, trust.”  

As he approached the pond, he saw his friends.  Everyone had their back to him except for the stranger, who was looking right at him but seemed to pay no attention to him at all. Spunky took a deep breath and said, “Hey, it’s me, Spunky.  What’s up?”  

Allie spoke up and said, “Spunky, it’s nice to smell you around, I mean to have you around.  This is our new friend, Kai, and his dog Trusty.”

Spunky gathered up all the courage a skunk could have, walked right up to Kai, stuck his paw out, and said, “Hi.  Nice to meet you.”  

The boy just smiled and said, “Same to you.”  He never even shook Spunky’s outstretched paw!  Spunky felt hurt and looked at Kiera, hoping she could help make sense of all this.  

“Oh, Kai doesn’t see with his eyes.”

“You mean he’s blind?” asked Spunky, suddenly realizing how silly his worries had been.  Willow told him all the time that how other people acted was their responsibility, not his!  

“I may not see with my eyes, but I “see” with my other senses,” said Kai.  

“In that case, I guess you’ll be able to “see” me coming long before anyone else,” Spunky giggled.

Kai and Kiera laughed.  Allie, who was keeping a close eye on Trusty, said, “Are you sure that dog isn’t going to chase after me?  I’ve never met a dog yet who hasn’t chased a cat!”

“Trusty was raised around cats so he won’t chase them or any other animals.  You can imagine how difficult it would be if he was guiding me and then suddenly took off after a cat!” Kai said.  “I would love for all of you to come back to our cottage.  We can have a picnic on the grass and my Uncle would love to meet you all.”

“That sounds great,” said Cheeky.  “You don’t happen to have any nuts for lunch do you?”

“Cheeky, remember to trust,” said Kiera.

“Yes, Kai trusts Trusty, and I must just trust.  Let’s go!  Should I bring my own nuts?”

Kai laughed and realized how fortunate he was to have met this unusual group of friends.  “Trusty and I will lead the way.”

Spunky waddled along at the end of the group, thinking how lucky he was to be a part of a wonderful group of friends.  Feeling hurt and alone was something he created in his thinking, and moved into the world.  He was going to move better thoughts from now on.

Questions for Kids: When has someone said or done something to you that hurt your feelings? Do you think that it’s your fault that they acted that way?  Are you responsible for how they feel?  Why or why not?

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