Once, a little girl lived in a small, simple house on a hill.
As she grew up playing in her small garden, she could see, over the garden fence and across the valley, a wonderful house high on the hill.
This house had golden windows, so golden and shining that the little girl would dream of how magical it would be to live in a house with such golden windows instead of an ordinary house like hers.
And so, even though she loved her parents and her family, she yearned for the golden house and dreamed all day about how wonderful and exciting it must be to live there.
When she got to an age when she could go outside her garden fence, she asked her mother is she could go for a bike ride down the lane.
After much pleading, her mother agreed, but insisted that she keep close to home and did not wander too far.
The day was beautiful and the little girl knew exactly where she was heading! Down the lane and across the valley she rode her bike until she got to the gate of the golden house across on the other hill.
As she got down from her bike and leant it against the gate post, she glanced at the path that led to the house, and then the house itself…and was she disappointed! All the windows were plain and rather dirty, reflecting nothing but the sad neglect of a house that stood derelict.
Heartbroken, she didn’t go any further and turned back. As she got back on her bike, she glanced up and saw a sight that took her breath away.
There, across the valley on her side of the valley, was a little house and its windows glistened golden… the sun shone brightly on her little home.
The little girl realised that she had all along been living in a golden house and all the love and care she found there was what made her home the ‘golden house.’ Everything she dreamed of was right there in front of her nose!
Image courtesy Vecteezy.com