Princess Bare Foot and the Tales from Togetherland

By John Townsend

Princess Bare Foot and The Tales from Togetherland came about through a chance meeting of John Townsend with Nimsi Micaelo. That chance meeting revealed Nimsis ideas for a book for children. She had the title already in her head, Princess Bare Foot. From their repeated conversations and exchanges of ideas, with John turning Nimsis ideas into short stories along with his own ideas, Princess Bare Foot and The Tales from Togetherland was born.
The flow of ideas from Nimsi and John has continued resulting in a second book, even into a third book. The book holds fast to childhoodinnocent, dreamlike, and happy.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse UK
• Release date: Sep 12, 2013
• ISBN: 9781491876954

John Townsend

Dr. John Townsend is a nationally known leadership consultant, psychologist, and author, selling over 10 million books, including the New York Times bestselling Boundaries series. John founded the Townsend Institute for Leadership and Counseling and the Townsend Leadership Program. Dr. Townsend travels extensively for corporate consulting, speaking events, and to help develop leaders, their teams, and their families. John and his family live in Southern California and Texas. Visit DrTownsend.com.

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© 2013 by John Townsend. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 10/04/2013

ISBN: 978-1-4918-7694-7 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4918-7695-4 (e)

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

CONTENTS

Dedication

Acknowledgments

Princess Bare Foot

I Cannot Sing

I Have Lost My Dream

And The Band Played On

My Name Is Fwendy

The Man In The Moon

A Stranger Comes To Town

The Voice

Mr. Morello

Pigeon Post

Not Enough Days

Charlie’s Great Day

When You Wish Upon An Acorn

When You Wish Upon An Acorn

Why Are There Rainbows

The Rainbows End

The Day Of The Balloon

My Name Is Bubbles

Has Anyone Seen My Monkey?

The White Castle

About The Author

About The Contributor

About The Illustrator

DEDICATION

To all the children and creatures of Planet Earth

who are suffering, sometimes it’s dreams

that carry you through.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The book has been born from an idea and from suggestions from Nimsi, as well as illustrations by her sister Madeline.

There is a place called Togetherland where all suffering disappears

where dreams really do come true right

before your eyes

where imagination steps out of the box

suddenly it comes alive

so let us invite you all

please will you step inside.

PRINCESS BARE FOOT

Under a very very dark night sky, filled with what looked like every star in the universe, a young African girl looks up, as she does tears roll down her face.

It has been another hot, dry summer, so dry nothing grows, just withers then dies. Everyone is hungry, those in Nimsi’s village Bolooba, and those across the land.

Her tears are not for herself, but for the children of Africa, everyone of those stars above remind her of a hungry, sad child. ‘What can I do?’ she asks the stars above, as she lays down, hungry, tired, and exhausted, she closes her eyes and dreams.

Nearby, Nelson, a one eyed Lion wearing an eye patch watches the young girl, he knows her well, she treats him with respect. He see’s the tears fall down her cheeks and is compelled to call to her, introducing himself with a polite cough, then asking her, ‘Nimsi, why do you cry?’

Nimsi turns to look at Nelson, as she does she wipes the tears off of her face. ‘What can I do to help the children, in my village I hear them cry at night, we are hungry Nelson.’

Nelson nods his head as he listens, he is an old wise Lion, one who has seen it all before. After a moment he replies, as he swishes his tail thoughtfully. ‘There is a very ancient story I must tell you Nimsi, it is about a Princess with bare feet who leads the children of Africa to a wonderful place called Togetherland.’ As he speaks Nimsi is astonished at what he says, she has no shoes and stands barefooted, Nelson notices her excitement and nods approval as he continues the story. ‘It is written that this one will be known as The Bare Foot Princess, that she will have seen a bright blue shooting star and call out to it with tears, that the star will fall before her feet and she will receive a great gift of leadership from it. That one day she stands beneath the burning Sun and calls all of Africa’s children to join her, that she leads them across the sky and back again, only when they return Africa is rich and green, a land of plenty, a place called Togetherland.’

Nimsi is so excited at the story and cannot stop from saying the obvious, ‘But Nelson I have bare feet!’ Nelson nods his head and they both look up towards the stars.

Nelson yawns a loud exaggerated yawn then excuses himself, saying, ‘Nimsi I am hungry too, and I am so weak and tired, I must rest. You rest too.’ With that he walks away into the dry bush.

Nimsi looks back up at the stars draped across the black, black heavens, as she does she thinks on Nelson’s story, then searches the expanse for that blue shooting star.

She too was tired and was just about to lie down when a huge bright blue light drifted across the night sky, Nimsi looks at it and cry’s out to it, ‘Help us, oh help us, help us please.’ At once the burning blue light appeared as if to hear her, it seemed to be coming ever closer, growing bigger and bigger. Within a minute all around Nimsi was glowing in blue bright light, and Nimsi was