The old lady and her dream

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The old lady sat in her most comfortable chair next to the stove and in the patch of bright sunlight that streamed through the window, because it was the warmest place in the house. She had finished cooking and was waiting for the food to cool off. To pass the time, she had started knitting a beautiful, rainbow-colored scarf for whoever might need it sometime. The smell of the food and the fragrance of the flowers - of which she was very fond - filled the kitchen. The room was warm and cozy. The knitting-needles clicked rhythmically, like the clock, she didn't need any more.

She had worked her whole life, getting up early in the morning, being on time in the shop, raising children, getting them ready for school, and bed, and music-lessons, and doctors-appointments, and recitals, and, and, and... She didn't regret her busy life, but she enjoyed the peace and quiet she had now.

While she knitted in the warm and redolent kitchen, she gazed out of the window into her resplendent garden. She liked gardening, although it had become more and more strenuous for her old joints. A gentle breeze made the flowers nod and the leaves flutter as if they were bowing to the lady and applauding her.

No wonder that the old lady became a little drowsy. The hands holding the knitting needles sank into her lap and her upper eyelids on the lower.

However, she wasn't aware of dozing. She still looked out into the garden. There, the flowers still bobbed up and down and the leaves waved to and fro. Suddenly, the flowers detached themselves from their stems and transformed into graceful fairies that flew dancing through the air and the leaves became mischievous gnomes with pointy hats. Whenever a fairy came too close to one of the gnomes, he tried to catch one of their ribbons or veils. That was not easy, the fairies were very agile and the gnomes rather clumsy. It was funny to watch. The poor gnomes contorted themselves and stretched themselves just to get a fistful of cloth they could pull on and the fairies flitting about to avoid it. Every once in a while, a gnome succeed and a comical tug-of-war began. The fairies - for some reason or other - were rather reluctant to yield their accoutrements and the gnomes were reluctant to let go of them. Both sides strained and pulled, getting more and more red in their faces.

Well, as always in a tug-of-war, one side eventually wins and the other loses. Won the fairy, she pulled the gnome off his branch, the gnome changed back into a leaf and floated spiraling to the ground. Did the gnome succeed in taking whatever he had grabbed, the fairy was retransformed into a flower and wilted.

This went on and on until the branches were barren and all the flowers withered. That was terrible! The old lady awoke with a start, she had to do something about it!

But when she opened her eyes, the garden was still in full bloom and all the trees and bushes had leaves, and the old lady realized that it was only a dream. Smiling, she shook her head: "Silly dream!"

From this day on, something was different. Whenever the old lady wanted to pick some flowers or pluck leaves from branches, she simply couldn't do it anymore. "Hm," thought the old lady, "obviously, one is never too old to change one's mind!"