The Owl Who Could Not Sleep

Little owl Puffy was awake all night. That is how owls are; they fly at night and sleep by day. But Puffy had a problem: in the daytime she simply could not sleep.

As soon as the sun came up she perched on her branch and closed her eyes. But the birds were singing. She opened her eyes. She closed them again. This time a squirrel was cracking hazelnuts on the branch. Crack, crack, crack. Puffy sighed.

"I can't sleep," she said to the rabbit below.

The rabbit thought. "Before I go to sleep I hop three times," he said. "Try it." Puffy hopped three times on the branch. The branch swayed, leaves fell. Sleep did not come.

The squirrel said, "I wrap myself in my tail." Puffy's tail was short; she could not wrap herself in it.

The deer said, "I think about the sun." Puffy thought about the sun; her eyes opened even wider.

Then the old tortoise came. He came very slowly. Puffy yawned while she waited. The tortoise sat down at the foot of the branch and began to talk. Slowly, very slowly: "Once upon a time... there was a pond... at the edge of the pond... a stone... on the stone... a leaf... on the leaf... a drop..."

Puffy's eyes closed halfway.

"...inside the drop... a little sky... in the sky... a cloud... inside the cloud..."

Puffy's head dropped onto her chest.

"...a little owl... was sleeping."

Puffy was asleep.

The rabbit, the squirrel and the deer looked at one another. The tortoise smiled: "Sleep doesn't come by force. It comes slowly."

From that day on Puffy waited for the tortoise every morning. Every morning the tortoise told the same story; Puffy never once heard the end. Because she always fell asleep at the part "inside the cloud."

Now you try it too: a pond... a stone... a leaf... a drop... a sky... a cloud... and inside the cloud, you.