Once upon a time there was a shrew named Juan.

He was a high class individual and had a luxurious house with all the luxuries one would expect.

He dressed only in the finest spider silk suits and drank from the finest crystal goblets.

One day he was preparing for lunch with the upper class members of society.

The place had to be in perfect order.

It paced back and forth and looked down with its long snout trying to locate any discrepancy in its perfect place.

He went into town and came back with all the luxuries money could buy.

A little of this and a little of that. Things that shined and things that glittered.

He decorated, scrubbed, polished and shined, and he wouldn’t stop until everything he created looked perfect to impress all the upper class people.

At twelve o’clock the sun was bright in the sky and light filtered through the trees while the clouds danced like animals at a secret party.

When he heard a knock on the solid oak door, he asked his butlers, the beetles, to open the door. Juan hurried to greet his guests.

He was happy with his job and was confident that the other members of society would love his home.

Approaching his guests Juan said:

– Welcome all! Please come in. My butlers will take you to the garden where there is a wide variety of tea and cakes – he said with a smile.

His guests smiled and covered their faces with fans as they whispered: Pss…pss…psssss….!

In the garden the tea presentation was lovely, with fine macaroons, ice creams, cakes and dumplings.

However, in most shrew societies there is always a poison lurking in their words.

– Oh, what a lovely statue! – a guest said. – It’s so nice to see someone recycling old items that no one wants anymore.

– This area has a cabin feel to it! – said another guest, a grumpy old woman who bragged about one of the corners of the house.

– And this painting is very bohemian! – another said.

After the guests left, Juan cried and cried. He just wanted to be accepted and loved.

As he cried, the sky also began to pour large drops of rain onto the face of the earth.

So he went outside and ran and ran until he came to a large oak tree where he sat in the rain.

It stopped raining and the sun came out.

Juan saw that in the field there was a distant form that danced and moved along with the soft breeze that blew sweet smells of summer.

Juan was very intrigued!

A robust, brown mouse with a flower crown approached the oak tree and danced for Juan.

-Why are you crying little shrew? – He asked Juan as he grabbed his hands and spun him around.

Juan started to turn around and a big smile spread across his face.

Suddenly, Juan began to laugh uncontrollably and the mouse invited him to embark with him on many adventures.

The mouse invited the shrew to fly from helicopters of oriental bananas, although this was not the kind of thing that Juan would usually agree to do with someone of such low class.

He invited him to observe the full moon from the highest branches of a poplar tree.

They rode boats of leaves down the creek.

They cooked fish over a fire under a starry night.

They listened to the symphony of crickets.

They joined the squirrel circus.

Although Juan didn’t have much more than a backpack on his shoulders and his new friend, for the first time in his life he was finally happy.

He had forgotten to care what his peers thought of him, and he had forgotten about his elegant home and possessions.

He lived moment to moment with a friend who really appreciated him just the way he was. He realized that home is where the heart is.

Moral: Home is the place where your heart is.

Media Attribution

• Illustrations by Cheyenne Pokeda