“He tried to keep it hidden but no matter how hard he tried it kept bubbling up from deep inside...”
Once upon a time a long time ago very far away on a small planet in a big galaxy on the other side of the universe there lived a sad mifflegorm with a big heart. The mifflegorm's sadness was very, very deep and had been caused by many, many things and more than anything else the mifflegorm wanted the sadness to go away. He tried to keep it hidden but no matter how hard he tried it kept bubbling up from deep inside so that it was impossible not to see or hear the sadness whenever one saw or heard the mifflegorm. The mifflegorm longed for joy but sadness just kept leaking out of him.
One day JOY came to the small planet in the big galaxy on the other side of the universe - the Veebles sang about the arrival of the Joy with joy, the Shepplegorms heard their joy and were filled with joy and the Kanglegorms brought gifts and bowed low in joy before the source of all joy, Jesus. As for the mifflegorm - well, he heard the joy! he sang about the joy! he was filled with the joy! and he bowed low in joy to the source of all joy, Jesus! And thereafter whenever the sadness bubbled up and started to leak out of the mifflegorm, his friends, who had also been filled with joy, would remind him to remember to stir up the joy he had been given, so that the sadness wouldn't overtake him ever again.
And the morale of the story: Stirring up joy can plug a leaky mifflegorm - especially at this time of year when for some unknown reason many mifflegorm's are very leaky.
Madelaine is a wonderful friend and writer presently living in Toronto.