I am an elf

Dec 11 2022 | Sunday

Hello, beloved reader.

This morning, my day started on a heartening note as I began reading "The Elves and The Shoemaker" by Jacob Ludwig Karl Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm.

It's a story about a shoemaker who has become so poor that at last he has leather for only one pair of shoes. He cuts out the shoes which he wishes to begin to make the next morning, but the next morning when he is just about to sit down to work, he finds that the shoes have already been made. When a buyer comes in, the shoes please him so well that he pays more for them than is customary, and with the money, the shoemaker is able to purchase leather for two pairs of shoes. It goes on constantly that what he cuts out in the evening is finished by the morning, and he soon becomes a wealthy man.

And then the shoemaker and his wife decide to stay up one night to find out who has been lending them a helping hand, and then they prepare lots of presents for them to express their gratitude.

Now the funny thing is that I had, obviously, read the title before starting the story but I forgot all about it as soon as I began reading and I was as curious to find out who was making the shoes as the shoemaker and his wife. It was only later that I remembered the title and realised that I shouldn't have been curious at all, but then I wouldn’t have enjoyed the story as much.

Although we'd all like to be like the shoemaker who gets help from the elves, I think it would be quite rewarding to be the elf in somebody's life. I remember the other day I was in the kitchen when I noticed boiled potatoes in a bowl that my mother must have had to abandon because something else must have come up, so I peeled them, and then a little while later I started doing my work and had forgotten all about them when my mother rushed to me, thanking me profusely, and then I got lots of presents from her in the form of hugs and kisses. It's sweet when we secretly do something for someone that would make their life easier. I'm an elf, and I'm going to make the world better one pair of shoes at a time.
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Thank you for reading.​
Sahar Afreen

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