Grandma Willow's Garden
At the end of a winding lane stood a little cottage, and in front of the cottage grew the most beautiful garden anyone had ever seen. It belonged to Grandma Willow, and her granddaughter Rosa loved to help her tend it.
One evening, as the sky turned pink and gold, Grandma Willow knelt down and pressed a small brown seed into the earth.
“But Grandma,” said Rosa, “that seed won’t grow into a flower for a whole year. You might not even be here to see it bloom.”
Grandma Willow smiled her soft, wrinkly smile. “That’s the secret of the best gardens, my Rosa. Long ago, someone planted the tree that shades us now. They never saw it grow tall. They planted it for people they would never meet — for us.”
Rosa thought about that. “So you’re planting flowers for someone you’ll never meet?”
“For whoever walks down this lane, years from now, and needs a little beauty,” said Grandma Willow. “That’s the kindest thing of all — to give a gift you’ll never get thanked for.”
Rosa knelt down beside her grandmother, took a tiny seed, and pressed it gently into the warm earth.
“For someone I’ll never meet,” she whispered.
And as the stars came out over the little cottage, the two of them sat together in the garden — one very old and one very young — with a whole future of flowers sleeping quietly in the ground beneath them.
The end. 🌷
Talk about it together
- Why did Grandma Willow plant seeds for people she'd never meet?
- What is one kind thing you could "plant" for someone tomorrow?
- Who has done something kind for you that you still remember?