Blessings for Chapter Three

[pobble_reads]

My first more obvious blessing is for the children who rescue Gobbolino from the mill-stream. They see him in danger and act quickly (and effectively) to save him. I'm a little bit uncomfortable with the way their actions and words are split up on gender lines. When they are discussing Gobbolino after they have pulled him out of the water there's a back and forth commentary between the sisters abd the brothers where they boys are more quick to point out Gobbolino's "faults" (ways in which he is like a witch's cat) and the girls defend him by pointing out his more mundane and homely features. I have a lot of feelings about it - I don't think being like a witch's cat is a good reason to reject a kitten and I don't like the implication that boys are naturally more critical/protective or that girls are more soft hearted/welcoming. But if i'm going to stick to the process of trusting the text I have to accept that those are the attitudes and opinions of these particular boys and girls - shaped by the (fictional but obviously very traditionally gendered) world they are growing up in. And both attitudes are necessary/useful. The most important thing is that when they see a creature in danger they work together to save it. So a Blessing for (and much Gratitude to) all first-responders - formal or informal and for everyone who sees something concerning and acts to make a difference. May they be safe, physically and emotionally, in their work to help others, may they be alert to what is needed and may they have whatever they need in order to ve able to act effectively.
The less obvious and slightly harder for me to get my head around blessing is for the Farmer. I've already discussed not knowing if he is acting with sensible caution or from prejudice and it's too easy to just see him as the baddy for not immediately fully acdepting Gobbolino. But he isn't a simple baddy - he sees something that concerns him and he doesn't act impulsively (which is an interesting counterpoint to the children needing to act immediately to save Gobbolino from the mill wheel). He makes sure his children are safe and expresses his love for them before he does anything about their worryingly magical new pet. I would like to bless everyone who is not sure how to respond to something that may be a threat or may be a blessing, for everyone who is trying their best to protect the people they love and have responsibility towards. May they have compassion and thoughtfulness and may we all be careful, thorough, kind and open to new perspectives in our identification of what is and isn't a threat, may we all have the strength to resist prejudice and when we do have to make difficult judgements may we have everyone's wellbeing in our hearts and minds