Camy and his voyage to the discovery of emotions
Ca my a nd his jo u r ne y t o t he d is co v ery o f emo t i o n s
Early in the morning, the small chameleon woke up in a good
mood. I imagine you asking: ‘When did this story happen?’ ‘And
what happened that made the chameleon so happy?’ I know that
you’re curious to know the secret as to why the chameleon was so
happy. Has this ever happened to you? Have you ever found yourself saying ‘Today I feel really good!’?
To tell you the truth, there were some things that were worrying the
chameleon, things that he was not dealing with or was not trying to
understand, but that surely meant something: that day was the day
the adventure would begin!
Yes, the small chameleon called Camy (all chameleons have strange
names with strange sounds because their tongue is so long) decided to LEAVE!
WHERE? He didn’t even know where he was going! But it seemed
like there was someone who was telling him to leave his forest, his
tree, and his insects that he loved so much, even for a short while.
To leave so that he could learn something about the world that he
saw beyond the leaves and that he had heard about from his flying
friends, and that no other chameleon had ever seen before.
Camy started his journey with a ride on the tortoise who told him so
many nice stories about particular animals with two legs who had
hair only on their heads and who covered their bodies with clothes
like he had never seen anyone do before. But the chameleon soon
realized that the tortoise was moving too slow! They weren’t going
to move very far with this pace so he decided to ask for help. He
asked the other insects to help him find a faster way. The insects
told him that the animals with two legs that Camy was looking for
used strange things to move around that were made of metal and
that moved really fast even on the bumpy roads of the forest. They
told him to find his way into one of these metal things without being
noticed so that he could finally start his adventure.
That’s what Camy did. He went into one of the houses that these
insects lived in on the side of the forest road, and he did not wait
too long until he found a CAR to go on to (it didn’t take long for
Camy to learn this new word, CAR!).
Camy chose the biggest car he could find. The car was carrying a
lot of trees and so it was easy for Camy to hide in them. But it was
less easy for him to know where he was heading for, because after a
whole day travelling, they ended up near the sea. There he saw a lot
of those animals with two legs and with hair on their heads (not all
of them had hair on their heads!). And then the tree that he was hiding in, was pulled up by what Camy thought was another big tree!
It wasn’t really a big tree; it was a crane but Camy couldn’t tell. The
tree and Camy were placed in a big container, together with other
trees. After a few hours, Camy plucked up courage to take a look
around him. He couldn’t believe what he saw! All around him there
was only water. Wherever he looked he saw water. He had seen the
sea before, but now he was right in the middle of it, and he was going to a place far away from home.
The journey was long, but comfortable: there were so many containers filled with trees that Camy felt like he was still in the forest. Time
went by quickly until one day he saw the container being emptied
and the trees being placed on a car like the one he had started his
journey on. The tree that he was hiding on was lowered and put in
a big green space. In this space, Camy could see many trees he had
never seen before: fruit trees where he could see strange animals
- some were hidden and some were running about. Camy realized
that the journey had come to an end, and that he could come out
of hiding.
With his heart pounding, he took a first step, and then another, and
another... until he found himself in the middle of some nice green
grass. He decided to jump on something bigger than him so that
he could see what was around him. This thing was grey and it was
under a tube where water was coming out. First he went on a rock
and then a big jump...bang...he arrived near the strange object. He
realized that the object was empty from the inside but it was too
late! Camy lost his balance and fell inside. He hit the bottom and
heard a sound of metal hitting against the wall. It didn’t look good:
he ended up at the bottom of a bucket that was too big to get out
of and too heavy to topple over. Camy began to shake. He started
sweating. He started feeling very hot. He was scared. He felt something that he had never felt before. Camy started shouting with all
the strength that he could master. HHHEEEEEELP!
At that moment, a big animal passed by. The animal had a bell round
its neck that was ringing with every step it took. The animal, a big
cow, looked at the bucket and saw Camy in the corner. “You don’t
need to be AFRAID”, said the cow, “I’m going to get you out of
there.” With a kick, the cow toppled the bucket over, and Camy ran
out quickly and went to hide in the grass. After Camy got his energy
back, he thought: the way I felt in the bucket was FEAR! Camy had
just started his journey and he had already learned something!
Although he was still shaky from what had happened, Camy decided to continue exploring but he would remain in the open space.
It was time to eat and Camy felt hungry. He thought of going near
some animals whom he had seen eating. There were big animals together with their young ones. Camy decided to go near a puppy to
see what it was eating. Without realizing, the puppy moved about
and accidentally stepped on the chameleon’s tail. Camy turned
bright red with smoke coming out of his ears, and he wanted to kick
the puppy, but the puppy was much bigger than Camy.
“Why are you angry?” asked a bigger dog, who probably was the
puppy’s mummy, “My son didn’t step on your tail on purpose. You’re
so small that we can’t even see you”. Camy understood that the
reaction he experienced was ANGER. He changed his colour and
turned into a different shade of red, probably because of the shame
he felt that he wanted to kick someone else. The emotions that
we feel are never wrong, but some of our behaviour can be. Camy
turned away, and still red with SHAME, he continued his journey.
When you are so far away from home and when you see things
that you have never imagined before, you start feeling in ways that
you have never felt before. Our small friend started realizing that,
as time passed, he always learned something new. But he was also
learning more on the way he reacts to the world, and how this way
of reacting was making him FEEL. All these situations that he was
never expecting taught him, for example, that when faced with
things he didn’t expect, he rolled his eyes, he sometimes opened
his mouth, and he felt a little excited. And that is how he learned
how to recognize when he felt SURPRISED. But the surprises did
not end here...
Camy still needed to get to know the animals with two legs, those
with hair on their heads (not all of them). This meeting occured in
the afternoon, during a hot day when Camy was resting in the shade
of the leaves of a fruit tree that he had never seen before, one that
had big red balls hanging from its twigs (Camy later discovered
these were called apples). Someone small with two legs (in reality,
for Camy it was someone very big, but he had already seen many
who were bigger than him) climbed the tree and tried to take one of
these fruits. When he raised his leg, the one that he wasn’t using to
walk, he mistook Camy for a fruit and grabbed him instead! By now
Camy was red with fear but also red because he felt angry at having
been caught. That someone with two legs was a boy, and he was
not afraid of Camy. He had never seen an animal like Camy before,
but at school and in his family he had been taught how we can feel
different emotions, but that if we learn how to recognize them we
can avoid doing things that we might feel sorry for afterwards. Instead of screaming and throwing the chameleon far away, the boy
released his grip so as not to hold the chameleon so tightly. He
climbed down from the tree, as smoothly as he possibly could. And
then he held Camy against his chest, as if he was hugging him.
When the boy was on his way home with Camy in his hands, the
chameleon started changing his colour all the time, depending on
whether he felt afraid, sad, or curious about what was happening
around him.Camy was also surprised when he saw other white animals with curly hair, with four legs, some of them fatter, while others
were smaller. He realized that these animals were very comfortable
being next to each other. They were next to their mother and they
looked so relaxed and calm that it seemed that their mother knew
exactly what they needed.
Slowly the boy arrived at his home, a big house surrounded by
fields, animals and other people. The boy called the other people
and they all came to see what he had in his hands. He opened his
hands and showed his father the small animal that he had never
seen before. The man looked at Camy, caressed him on the head
and told the others: this is a small chameleon, I think he got lost, we
can keep him with us and adopt him, he could be a new member
of our family.
Everyone started clapping and Camy understood that something
special had just happened. They built a small house for him using
twigs and brought him a lot of insects that he loved so muh. He
started eating them happily by catching them with his long tongue.
All the children used to go and visit him and he used to change his
colour when he saw them, partly because he used to be shy, and
partly because he used to be surprised. The children loved this.
Bit by bit Camy realized that deep down he felt good, always getting better. Sometimes his skin turned into different colours like the
rainbow. He started feeling that the persons around him loved him,
and took care of him. He learned that what he felt had a name: he
learned what it means to be HAPPY.
Now, would you like to experience Camy’s adventure and
learn how to recognize your emotions too?