The Marriage Plant

In the garden one day a seed fell
Dropped by the gardener it landed in fertile soil.
But it was a shady area, and this seed needed sun
So it quietly waited for years, saving its energy
In hope that it would one day be ready

Many years later, quite by chance
The shrub under which this seed lay was taken away
As the shrub’s roots pulled loose, soil fell and covered the seed.
Hope filled the seed as rain began to fall,
Giving the seed life-giving water

No longer blocked from the rain or sun
The little seed felt its skin began to expand and stretch
In joy it reached out its arms through the light soil
And felt for the first time the sun directly upon it
And the seed became a plant

The plant grew for a year, stretching its arms
Enjoying the sun and rain and rich fertile soil.
There were hard times it struggled with no rain and no sun
But the plant stored its energy and was there to
Celebrate when clouds cleared.

One day the plant realized it was unfulfilled
Although it had grown from a mere seed to a plant,
It had not yet given life to flowers for the world to enjoy
And the plant knew that part of its purpose
Was to offer these flowers.

Reaching deep inside, the plant felt the movement
The flower bud was working its way towards the sun
Stretching and straining the plant in ways it had not known
The flower pushed its way into the world
And burst into bloom.

The plant was so proud of its flower
And enjoyed showing it off to the world
But soon it realized that, in all its efforts to flower
It had neglected to take in the nourishment
It needed for survival.

The first sign of stress showed
As the plants leaves drooped from the heat
It had spent its reserves without taking in the necessary energy
From the life-giving sun and rain
And it began to die

There were rain storms and sunny days
The plant was able to enjoy
But it never seemed to spend enough time enjoying its life
In order to regain its earlier vitality
And it continued to die

Leaves began to drop from the plant
And the plant became too weary
To grow new leaves to replace those that dropped
There came a day that the plant
Simply gave up

The plant knew that all it needed
Was sunshine and water to bring it to life
But it spent all of its energy on keeping the flower going
While the leaves that made the flower
Particularly beautiful wilted away

Soon all that was left was the flower
And while it was a beautiful flower
One that would bloom and drop its own seeds
For the future of plants
It was very sad

For the plant that had given it life
With all of the love it had to offer
Had left the flower wondering whether being a plant
Was so special if it turned out
To be this painful.

One day the gardener came through the garden
And saw the plant setting dry in the soil
The gardener saw that the flower was trusting the plant
To give it nourishment and life
Though the plant appeared dead.

The gardener carefully loosened the soil around
The plant’s roots, giving it air to lend it strength
He watered the plant and made sure that the sun shone directly
On the plant as He touched it,
Willing it back to life

The plant took a deep breath
And looked up into the sun shining above
Within its withered stem it felt something shift
And begin to stretch up again
And felt hope reborn…


August 2000 - Sophia