Learning to Shine

[This is part of a collection of therapeutic short life stories I have written]

The flower sat pondering when the sun would come out.

She didn’t mind the rain and knew she needed to drink; she didn’t mind the wind, because it tickled her petals and made her giggle and left her feeling cleansed. She had learnt to understand the grey clouds, because sometimes you just need to rest and ponder and today was one of those days.

She missed the sun. She missed the warm rays and the calm waves of peace it gave her. She grew in it presence. Her whole little stem and petals lite up when the sun shone and she loved how that felt. She loved the sun and she felt like the sun loved her when it shone down on her. She wished she could stay in the sun all the time, but she knew that if she did she would shrivel, dry out and die.

Sometimes it felt unfair, but she was a flower and flowers knew balance.

When she was a little and much smaller flower she used to feel so impatient and would try and shine all the time, even when it was cloudy and rainy, but it became so tiring and she would have to sleep and sleep and she would often miss when the sun did come out, because she was sleeping.

As the seasons passed she grew bigger and stronger and her excitement for the coming of spring was tapered a little by patience and an understanding of everything in its time and place. She had learnt that when she rushed to bloom she would tire herself out and not last the whole summer.

She had learnt to take smaller steps of growth and let herself work with the weather and seasons, until it was her time to be the tallest and strongest flower and fulfil her destiny; to look glorious, to smell beautiful, to attract the lovely butterflies and honey bees and to bask in the sun.

She knew deep inside that when that time came the sun would be within, radiating from her and she would shine and shine and shine her true full colours and any passerby would have to stop and gaze upon her and she would bring joy into their heart and hers.