If you can think back and remember the first time in your life you wanted something so badly you saved up all your pennies, birthday money from relatives, lawnmowing wages, and stray quarters picked up off the sidewalk until you attained the object of your heart’s desire, I’ll bet you treasure it among your gems of character-building childhood memories. These early lessons in the power of our dreams and will stay with us throughout our lives, and inspire many a folk tale and children’s story. “Where the Red Fern Grows,” for example, takes such a well-loved place among children’s literature today because Wilson Rawls put these lessons at the heart of it. Well beyond being a touching dog story, it’s the story of Billy Coleman’s dreams, and it forces us to ask ourselves, if a young boy growing up in poverty in the Ozark hills can scrimp and save to buy a pair of hound pups and help fulfill his family’s dreams, what’s holding us back from our own?
For the last three years, my son River has been saving up all his money for one thing. One of our favorite artists at the local Saturday Market, Raven Moon, makes these beautiful rattles called Shapeshifters in the form of magical creatures, eggs, and masks out of herbs and natural materials all encrusted in gemstone chips, crystals and little treasures. They are beautiful, functional works of local art. My kids have been getting each other little rattles as gifts for the last few years, and over that time, my son developed an artistic connection with the Raven Moon, and an unwavering certainty that he was going to save up all his money to buy the giant frog rattle. The realist in me said he might be able to by the time he was a teenager, but would likely change his mind before then. The dreamer in me, however, said that this was an excellent opportunity to teach him about economics, the value of art, the power of our dreams, and the importance of pursuing them with determination and purpose. I told him to start saving.
Every trip to Saturday Market, Holiday Market or the Oregon Country Faire, we stopped by to check in on the rattle. It sold a few times and new ones were made, but my son didn’t mind. He was saving up for just the right one. He always inspected the new one, talked to Raven Moon about it, and kept on saving. In three years, he never spent his money on a single thing. He put it all away in his piggy bank, and jumped on the chance to do any chore where someone offered him a couple of dollars in compensation. This winter, when I took the kids to open their first bank accounts, I was amazed to discover that he had saved up all the money! I told him that when Saturday Market started back up in the Spring, he could go and buy his giant frog rattle.
We made our big trip to the Market on a sunny Saturday, and headed straight to Raven Moon’s booth. Right away, River found the giant green frog rattle that was meant to be his. He got out his wallet, and asked how much it would be, and Raven said he had been thinking about it a lot and wanted to give him a special deal. My son held out the full amount, but still he insisted on sending him home with something to put back in the bank. He said to just come by and let him know what he decided to name it. It was a beautiful moment watching all the pride, joy and empowerment shining on my son’s face as he picked up the rattle in his arms like a precious baby and just stared at it. He had made his dream into reality.
This was a proud moment for me in my journey of raising children. I do my best to impart the values to them that I find most important as we go along, like being a good person, being a real person, taking good care of yourself and the earth, working hard, appreciating beauty and art, and so forth. In this instance, I was especially pleased that I had helped my child learn firsthand about dreams. We need our dreams to feed and fuel us as we go through life, and if we can start out believing that we posses the power to make them come true, it opens up a world of possibility ahead of us. A child’s dream like this one may seem unattainable and frivolous at first assessment, but when you look past the dream itself to the path towards it and all the lessons to be gained, it is absolutely worth giving them your blessing and support. I can’t wait to see what his next dream will be.
“If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams,
and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined,
he will meet with success unexpected in common hours.”
~Henry David Thoreau
So beautiful Lara! I teared up with this one. We love your River boy. He is so sweet and such a good friend. His new frog friend is blessed to live in his bedroom with him.
What did he end up naming him?
*sigh* 🙂 Thank you!
Beautiful story. I remember the first two items I saved up for as a child (age 6-8) – first a Hello Kitty wallet to help me save more, then a jewelry box, which I still have.
Thank you all around! And Nikki, still un-named as far as I know. I'm planning to ask about it this evening. And he's lucky to have good friends like you guys too!
I love this! I't so sweet and River is an amazing boy. I think we can all look forward to many more inspiring adventures from this little guy.
Wonderful post, Lara! I love that booth!
I am so glad I got to see River and his frog rattle that day!! What a beautiful post you wrote about it too! I love the way you write Lara. My heart is smiling, River is so awesome! He is an inspiration to us all.