It was a cold and clear morning – perfect weather for fishing. Plato sleepily rubbed his flippers over his face as he waddled over the slick ice. Soft rays of sunlight shone off the bare patches of ice, and Plato squinted to keep the light out of his eyes.
Moving slowly, he headed for the fishing waters to catch breakfast. As he tried to squeeze past a jutting rock formation, he suddenly heard a pattering of feet behind him. Before he could react, a penguin jumped onto his head and clambered over.
“Get out of the way, you slow-moving piece of sea lion bait! Go get yourself eaten!” the other penguin squawked over his shoulder.
Plato’s eyebrows slanted angrily and he took a deep breath. He shook his head once and carried on waddling toward the water. Taking a hop up onto a convenient rock, he dived off. The water felt smooth, and Plato’s mind zoned into his task – catch enough fish for both him and his younger sister, Puff.
He was soon hot on the tail of a fish frantically swimming for its life. As Plato closed in, he opened his beak in anticipation of the catch. Instead of biting down on the fish though, he collided hard with a blur of black and white feathers and fell back, stunned.
“Watch where you’re swimming, you bald-headed pile of seagull poo!” grumbled the Adelie penguin that Plato had run into. “Now look what you’ve done – you bumped me and my fish escaped!”
As the Adelie penguin swam off, Plato sighed. “You think I was trying to collide with you and lose my fish?” Plato muttered in frustration. “I got mouths to feed too.”
Thankfully, fishing went a lot smoother after that. Plato managed to catch a squid and a couple of fish for his own breakfast, which he ate immediately. He then hunted down a fairly large fish, along with a few smaller fish, to bring back to Puff.
~~~~~
Puff opened her eyes and wiggled her toes. She rolled out of the nest and her tummy rumbled.
“Breakfast time…” she thought. Almost right on cue, Plato waddled back up the hill with fish dangling from his beak.
“Breakfast!” she cheered, running up to him. Plato dropped the fish as Puff bounced up, ready for her meal. She grabbed the larger fish with her beak, but it slipped out and started sliding down the hill. She scurried after it and promptly tripped over the fish’s tail.
“Puff, why are you so clumsy? Just eat the fish already.” Plato said.
“I’m trying, but it’s slippery and my beak isn’t big enough…” she replied.
“Then stop messing about and just eat the smaller fish!” Plato burst out.
Puff’s shoulders drooped as she quietly waddled over to the smaller fish. Plato turned his back and headed off without a word.
“I’m sorry, big brother.” Puff quietly whispered.
~~~~~
Plato sighed. It had been twenty minutes since he blew up at Puff, and he had mostly calmed down. Sitting and looking at the sky always helped when he needed to think, and he knew he had an unfinished conversation with Puff.
When he got back to the nest, Puff was curled up with her eyes closed. The bigger fish lay beside the nest, so Plato stepped around it and gently nudged Puff’s forehead with his beak.
“Puffy?” Plato said.
Puff kept her eyes shut. “Aren’t you mad at me?”
“I was wrong to shout at you, Puffy. I’m sorry.” Plato said. “You didn’t do anything wrong, and I know you weren’t trying to mess about.”
Puff sat up. “Then why did you say those things?”
Plato replied, “This isn’t an excuse, but I got shouted at today too.” He sat down next to his sister. “It wasn’t fair of me to take that out on you, and I’m sorry I hurt you.”
Puff leaned against her brother. “I accept your apology. And I kept the bigger fish for you.”
Plato smiled. He stood up, ripped the fish into two, and offered one half to Puff. The two penguins swallowed their fish happily.
~~~~~
Author’s Note: Plato is my stuffed penguin from college, and Puff was crocheted and gifted to my sister by our aunt. This story was written as a fable to illustrate the hurtful effects of receiving and speaking harsh words.
Overflow 
There are times I end up receiving hurtful words from others outside and lash out at others close to me. I had even reached to an extent of showing an aloof manner towards all the members at my church because a former one had hurt me in the past. After my father who was a pastor had passed, I learned from his apprentice that he had always felt sorrow when he sees that he can save many young people but was not able to bring his own son to get more involved in church.
I really wished that I listened to him instead of ignoring him. He never forced me to help in serving church and always states that one must have a willing heart whenever they do something or it will mean nothing in the end. This feeling of guilt agonizes my heart whenever I think about it. I know understand there are some things that one must let go of, yet emotionally this is much harder to do.
In the end, I cannot continue sitting around and ponder about the past. When I started to get more involved in church, I began to notice how much the environment around me had changed, I was completely shocked to see how my father was able to show so many broken people love and compassion while continuing to teach them about the God’s Words. I firmly believed that he followed God until the very end as I could also see he had a very strong resolve in doing His work. It still astonishes me to this day how he was able to spend enough time with his family while serving God everyday. There are still some members that are dealing with problems of their own or still stuck in the past, and I want to help them. I know that it is time for me to start serving God and doing His work to save many others that are still lost out there. Hopefully in the end, I make my father proud.
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Mistake on the second paragraph,
I understand there are some things that one must let go of”*
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