Grim Tales from the Brothers Grimm

When I was a little girl, I had lots of fears. They were vague and muddled, like a menacing cloud hanging over me: fear of the intimidating kids at school, fear of being chastised by my parents or a teacher. Then there was the fear of bombs. I didn’t even know exactly what an attack would look like, feel like, whether everything around me would fall to pieces, whether I would fall to pieces. But I thought about it every time we had an air raid drill and had to stand at our lockers with our hands over our heads. I wondered how assuming this position was supposed to protect us from anything at all.

Perhaps these fears are why I loved, loved, loved fairy tales. Each tale centered around an innocent person or persons who were given a seemingly undoable task in order to save themselves (and sometimes others) from something terrible. And you know what? Our heroes/heroines always figured out a way to save the day. And as I felt myself right alongside them, making decisions about how to solve the evils of the world, I loved, loved, loved that feeling.

So today I recommend – pick up a copy of Grimms Fairy Tales. Share them with your kids. Or sneak a late-night read for yourself. I won’t tell. ☺

You’re never too old!