🎧 Bedtime Story Podcast #15
Audio version:
Alan The Lonely Alligator
Alan was a lonely alligator. He was never very happy. He saw other alligators together in the lake, and Alan was always left out.
“Why does no one like me?” Alan thought to himself as he sat at the bottom of the water. “No matter what I try to do, I just can’t seem to fit in.”
One day, when Alan was swimming with his head above the surface of the water, something landed on his head. It was a little silver bird, and Alan felt it tickle him behind his eyes.
“Get off!” Alan said. “Leave me alone. I’m sad.”
“Sad about what?” the bird said back.
“None of the other alligators like me. I can never fit in. I just want to be happy.”
The bird didn’t say anything for a while.
“I’m happy,” the bird said. “I know all about happiness. Happiness is my friend.”
Alan just snorted, dived down into the water, and forced the bird to take off into the air.
The next day, when Alan was swimming with his head above the water again, the bird landed on his head, just like before.
“Do you know what your trouble is?” the bird said to Alan.
“Yes! Of course I do!” Alan said. “I don’t fit in with the other alligators, so I’m lonely! I’m sad!”
“No,” the bird said. “Incorrect”
“What do you mean?” Alan yelled. He was considering diving down underwater again.
“Your trouble,” the bird said, “is that you think happiness is somewhere else. You don’t know that happiness is inside of you, just waiting to be felt, just waiting to be made friends with.”
Alan stopped swimming. “What do you mean?” he said.
“Happiness is within you,” the bird said, “but you can’t go making excuses not to feel it. Happiness is a living thing, it’s a living piece of energy that you can either be friendly with, or not.”
Alan started to think.
“If you think happiness is somewhere else with other alligators, then you’ll always feel you are missing out. Be friends with the happiness inside you first before you try to get it from somewhere else.”
Alan closed his eyes. He imagined what happiness would feel like, if he were to let himself feel it.
“Hmm,” Alan said. “I can feel something. Something inside. It feels light and fun.”
“Happiness!” the bird said. “That’s happiness! It wants to be your friend, Alan, be friends with it!”
Over the next few days, Alan stopped thinking about the other alligators. He just started making friends with the happiness that was always inside of him, the happiness he had never really noticed before. Sometimes he would just picture himself as a happy alligator, and then step into that image in his mind.
“I am happy,” Alan said to the little bird one morning. “I have become friends with happiness.”
“And now,” the bird said, “we can be friends too.”
After that, Alan stopped caring about trying to fit in with the other alligators. He was happy as he was, he was free, and to his surprise, the more he appreciated the happiness he felt, and the more he appreciated his new friendship with this wise little bird, the more the other alligators started wanting to become friends with him too.
“Make happiness your number one friend!” the little bird reminded Alan every morning. “It will bring you lots of good things!”
And for the rest of Alan’s life, he was happy. If he ever felt sad, it was okay, if he ever felt lonely, it was okay, but he was always reminded by that little silver bird that if he made friends with happiness first, then everything else would fall into place.
Story written and read by Adam Oakley, Copyright © Adam Oakley
Adam Oakley Books 