by Carrie R. Olson©July 2011

Ellefina sat one day wishing that she could do yoga.

She had been reading a magazine all about the practice of it.

The pages of the magazine were full of delightful images of people stretching their limbs, twisting their bodies into various positions,

balancing their weight and taking deep, relaxing breaths.

They looked so graceful and so at peace!

“What are you doing, my girl?” called out Ellefina’s mother. “You are being awfully quiet over there.”

“I’m thinking of taking up yoga, Mother,” Ellefina answered.

“Nonsense, don’t be absurd!” said her mother. “You’re an elephant! Us elephants don’t do yoga!

We are far too heavy, and our limbs are too thick to go twisting around like those human pretzels!”

“Well,” insisted Ellefina, “maybe I could be the first elephant to try yoga.”

“What is wrong with you? Are you out of your mind?” said Ellefina’s mother. “You were born an elephant and you’ll always be an elephant - just like me! So just you get that

silly yoga idea out of your head, because ELEPHANTS DON’T DO YOGA!”

Ellefina was so hurt by these discouraging words that she began to cry.

After some time, Ellefina stopped crying.

She could only think about how much she wanted to do yoga.

Once Ellefina had an idea in her head, she could never forget it.

Then she thought again about her mother’s words and started getting angry. She rolled and kicked her legs.

Elephants could not do yoga, so she started feeling angry about being an elephant. She decided that she was going to hate being an elephant for

the rest of her life!

Ellefina began to feel miserable.

She didn’t like how it felt when she was angry.

And again her mind drifted to thoughts about yoga.

Oh, how she longed to be the first elephant to do yoga!

She thought very hard and decided that she could never hate her life as an elephant. Why, she loved being an elephant!

She just knew that there had to be a way of making her yoga dreams come true.

Ellefina noticed some objects lying around.

She tried using them to help herself stand up on her two hind legs.

She did it!

Brilliant!

The success motivated Ellefina to keep going.

Next she tried clasping her hands behind her back and doing the splits.

This really felt alright!

Ellefina held the pose for several seconds. She inhaled deeply and exhaled just as deeply, just like a real yoga pro!

She thought about which moves she would try next.

Ellefina tried a headstand next.

Ellefina was very proud of herself.

Her dreams were coming true.

She had followed her heart’s desire and put forth her best effort…

And it worked!

THE END!