FRIENDSHIP

Once upon a time there lived a mountain, which was so high that it might have been the very tallest mountain in the whole world – and so he had very few friends. Only the big fluffy clouds could reach all the way to the peak. But what fun it was to poke his pointed summit into their fluffy, snowy whiteness! How it tickled! The clouds would burst into laughter, and sometimes they would even laugh so hard they would cry, and then it would rain on the earth below.

One hot summer the sun shone down so relentlessly that for several days there wasn't a single little cloud in the sky, and the mountain felt very sad. Finally, when he couldn't bear being lonely any longer, he asked the great wide sky, "Why won't you let the little ones run and play in your big bright blueness?"

The sky replied, "All my children have gone to the kingdom of winter, which is very far from here. They won't come back until the end of summer."

"But I miss them so much!" the mountain said with a sigh. "Maybe I should go to the winter kingdom too, and visit my friends?"

"You are a mountain, and mountains are heavy and can't fly like the clouds. Mountains always stay in the same place," the sky stated firmly.

From that day the mountain became even sadder. "Everyone else moves around and finds exciting new things and I have to sit still, nobody and nothing needs me," he wailed. Tears began to flow down the mountain face as, for the first time in his life, the mountain cried. Even as he cried, the dried and cracked soil in the plain below heaved a sigh of relief and started to thirstily drink in the long-awaited water. Even before the end of the day the plain was covered with fresh green growth.

The plain called out to the mountain, "O, kind mountain! Thank you for saving me from a terrible fate! Your water is so pure it has healed all my wounds. Look at how much it has changed me!”

The mountain was so surprised that he stopped crying. Until then nobody had even spoken to him from down below. He was, after all, so very high, and the plain so far below, that the mountain had forgotten that it even existed. The mountain looked down and gasped in surprise as he saw the flourishing green carpet, shining and fresh. The plain was so beautiful that the mountain felt like kissing it, and tingled with delight at the thought. At that the wise old sky whispered to him, "Now, mountain, you see that you can find friends anywhere. You just have to notice them!”

Questions and Exercises

How do you think the plain can help the mountain, and the mountain help the plain?

Imagine that beautiful flowers burst into life on the plain after the mountain watered it with its tears. Name the flowers.

Was there ever a time in your life when you were very lonely and you thought that nobody needed you, but then realized it wasn't true?

What would you tell a person who wants to make friends but can't find any?

Game: "Mystery Friend"

Write down the children's names ahead of time on slips of paper and get each child to take one slip. The child whose name is written on a piece of paper becomes the mystery friend of the one who chose that paper. Ask the children to act like a friend to that person until the next lesson, so each child can guess who his mystery friend is. Afterwards have a discussion with the children about how they were able to guess who their mystery friends were.

Picture: "Our Strength is in Our Friends"

Read the saying, "The strength of a tree is in its roots, and the strength of a person is in his friends." Ask each child to draw him- or herself in the form of a tree, with their friends as the roots.