Planting Flowers in the Desert

I am a substitute teacher in Ulster County, aspiring to get a full time job teaching art. As a substitute I have been fortunate in being able to teach many different subjects to all different age groups and all levels of cognitive and physical ability. One of the tools that I have developed as a substitute to deal with gaps in plans left. I love to tell stories, and I have a few of them filed away for days when they are necessary. I was recently filling in as the regular teacher for a sixth grade class. The kids were really well behaved on this particular day, but during their snack time I could see the seams starting to come apart as the kids began to loosen up and push the limits. I decided I wanted to tell them a story and I started to develop a brand new idea that just seemed to come to life. It was really one of those moments where you realize you aren’t in complete control and when the time is right to give a message sometimes you are just the vessel. I wanted to write the story down because I was so touched by it. Here it is.

Planting Flowers in the Desert.

Sue and Drew are twins that live in a desert. Even though they look so much alike, they are actually the exact opposite of one another. Drew is a kind, caring, sensitive and extremely optimistic. He always looks on the bright side of things and is usually smiling. Sue, on the other hand, is a sarcastic, mean, and overall a negative individual.

Living in the desert can be hard some days, but Drew always looking on the bright side would say “Isn’t the sun shining so very bright today?” Sue would respond “Are you kidding me? It is so bright that I have to squint all day long.” Drew would thoughtfully announce, “The warm sand feels nice between my toes.” And Sue would dispute it saying “Ugh! The sand is everywhere. I can’t stand it!” One day Drew decided that he was going to start dropping sunflower seeds everywhere he went. Sue saw this and laughed “Ha, that’s a dumb Idea trying to grow flowers in the desert. You would be better off planting weeds, at least they might grow.”  Drew being extremely optimistic ignored Sue’s criticism, and just kept dropping sunflower seeds everywhere he went. Sue was so annoyed by her brother’s unyielding positive attitude that she decided that she was going to start planting weeds everywhere she went just to prove him wrong. This went on for months and months. Everywhere Drew left a sunflower seed, Sue left three weed seeds. After, many months Sue exalted, “See Drew, I told you. Look at all of the weeds that are growing everywhere. I told you that it was a waste of time dropping flower seeds in the desert.” Drew didn’t hear Sue say this because he was so excited over the long stem that started to grow higher than all of the weeds.  Sue came over to gloat over her apparent victory only to see the same thing that Drew saw. One Sunflower was growing tall above the weeds that covered the ground. The flower grew taller than both Drew and Sue so they were both looking up in awe as the flower opened up and bowed its face to the two in a gesture of gratitude for existing.

Drew turns to Sue and says “You see Sue, you were right. I would have been more successful to plant the weeds like you did. But all of your hard work yields only weeds. The best that you can ever hope for is more weeds. I don’t know about you Sue, but I would rather have one beautiful flower than a hundred spiny, spindly weeds.”

The End.

Everywhere we go we have the opportunity to be kind and loving to one another, and each kind act is a seed of a beautiful flower. We also have the opportunity to be indifferent, detached and inactive. This is doing nothing at all. We also have the opportunity to be cruel, advantageous and self indulged. This is like planting the weed seeds.  We all know how easy weeds grow, so it is up to you whether you live if a world of flowers or a world of weeds.