Fruition

Many moons ago, a little girl planted a seed-not knowing what to expect. She thrilled at the little sprout that soon poked its head from beneath its brown blanket of earth. She gushed as that little bit of green grew larger and bushier...and bushier. She was quite content with something GREEN coming from the pot that she had planted, and she really didn't believe her Mama when she was told that a flower might just burst forth one day.

Then, her dreams very nearly shattered to bits, when the little girl (with her family) went out of town for a weekend. A weekend that proved to be one of the hottest, most dry of ALL the weekends that had been. When the little girl returned, her little plant was shriveled and crispy. The bottom leaves had almost shriveled to nothingness and the little girls' hopes for a blooming flower shriveled along with it.

Seeing the dispair and great sadness of her Little Miss, the heroic Mama replanted the girls once little seedling in a larger pot with only the FINEST of composted soil, and nursed the tender and frail plant back to health with a hearty dose of flower food. She pinched off the dead remains of leaves trailing up toward the flower, in hopes to get as many nutrients to the top as possible.

The little girl prayed that her plant would be healed. The Mama prayed that just ONE bloom would give the little girls heart a bit of praise for all the work and anticipation and love she had given it.

The next day, the leaves looked just a bit less krinkled. Each day following, the leaves turned a bit greener and got bushier and became healthier and appeared to be happier. Days passed and with it, sighs of relief from the Mama and anticipation of the future from the little girl.

Then, one magical day, a bud popped and stretched its orange petals toward a the bright and beaming sky. It thought it was stretching toward the sun, but when it nodded its freshly born eyes toward the heavens, it realized it was the face of a child that was beaming so.

That beaming child then shouted "It's a MIRACLE!", running to the Mama and sharing her joyful news.

It looks a bit of a topiary, but it couldn't be more beautiful in the little girls eyes. Or in the Mama's.