The Story of a Ball of Yarn

Written By: Maham Shahbaz

I will tell you about a bird today...no that wont explain it, birds are not very expressive, you see? Let me tell you about a ball of yarn. Yarn is more expressive than a living bird. So i will start now, there was this ball of multicolored yarn neatly placed in the basket with threads needles and other yarn balls. Peaceful, no? No. The problem was this that the old lady who used to knit every day. She made sweaters and mufflers for her children and grandchildren, she used every color with care but the multicolored yarn. That multicolored yarn thought there was something wrong with him and he grew sadder and sadder, he got depressed. The other yarn balls didn't talk to him nicely and when he was pushed into a corner, the old lady did nothing to defend it. So he started to tangle himself, more and more and more. Nothing was ever enough for him. He thought he was nothing and he deserved nothing. And everyday the old lady would untangle it and those few seconds would make his day. Its good to get untangled by someone who cares. As hours passed after his untangling he would think and think and later he saw that how the old woman used every other color but him. He would then tangle himself again, more and more trying to hide behind the knots, trying to mask away the betrayal he felt each and every other day. He could see in the eyes of the old lady how sad they were because she missed her family. She stopped untangling the multicolored yarn ball every day and did it for after a week then a month. There came a time when he got so used to hiding behind knots that he himself created for him that he started hiding behind them. No one can really run away for long from what they feel. He only felt purely happy when he was being untangled by the old lady herself, not her caretakers. No he hated being untangled by anyone else even himself. So he tried to stopped feeling. That did no good because then he felt a lot more and a lot more left out from other colors and from the old lady. He just wanted the old lady to tell him that he was valued like she used to every day while untangling him. There came a day when her grandchildren came to visit her finally. She gave them their sweaters, her eyes gleaming, they pretended to like them. When those teenagers got alone they laughed at the sweaters because they were "not good enough" what could be better than something made with so much care, time and love? She used to put thought into her every stitch. Only one girl liked hers and she even wore it with her favorite uggs. At night when the old lady was on her bed trying to sleep she said "you think i dont know? I know what they think, they are just thick thats all. Dont fret over every little thing. Youre my most precious yarn and i couldnt bring myself to give you up" The very next day that little girl asked her grandma if she could have her multicolored yarn and the old woman just nodded. How could she say no to someone that important? They both found the untangled yarn peacefully in the basket waiting...