The Little Gardener and the Flower

Once upon a time, there was a world inhabited by only two species: flowers and gardeners.

Among them lived a little gardener—small compared to the world around him and to the other gardeners, and somewhat of an oddity. When he first appeared in the village, he lived a normal life—or what the gardeners called a “wholesome” one. However, weary of the village’s mundane routine, he decided to explore the world more deeply. His curiosity made him prone to asking questions, a habit that annoyed the other gardeners.

He began asking why they always had to seek out a flower, why some gardeners perished while trying to grow alongside and care for their blooms, or why a flower might sometimes lose the very gardener who tended to it.

The little gardener always received answers—some questionable, others in need of refinement, some true only in certain cases, and even rumors of a curse upon a mountain. Whenever the gardeners grew tired of his presence, he—still unsatisfied—would climb the hill to reflect on their way of thinking and the strange answers they had given him.

He always carried his binoculars—the finest he had ever crafted—to gaze at the stars, yearning to understand a world of wonders that sometimes eluded even him.

During those nights of deep reflection, he began keeping a journal, recording the experiences of other gardeners. He did this in case he ever longed for a flower of his own—one he could tend, care for, love, heal, and protect, doing all the wonderful things a gardener who truly loved his flower would do.

As his journal grew, so did his understanding. Yet, little by little, he began to feel afraid, for he was starting to yearn for a flower of his own. Above all, however, he feared facing something more powerful than the heart itself: loving without reason.

One day, he found himself wondering whether he should venture out and see the rest of the world—to meet other kinds of gardeners or flowers. He decided to scan the horizon with his binoculars. Thanks to the moonlight, he spotted a barren mountain in the distance, gripped by a fierce storm that sent an icy wind sweeping from its peak all the way to where he stood.

The little gardener asked himself, “What could be happening over there?”

And, as he jotted notes into his notebook, he found a reason to set out—a goal, an obsession: to discover what it was that made his soul vibrate, vibrate intensely, in that very direction...

So, the little gardener came down from the hill and prepared himself, falling asleep knowing exactly what he had to do the next day. In his dreams, he gathered the courage he would need to see it through.