Mary Medlicott, Storyteller and Author - Storyworks

Storytelling Starters ~ Tomorrow’s flowers

“All tommorrow’s flowers are in the seeds of today.” Spelling mistake included, this was the thought on a hand-written sign in a florist’s shop I passed on Friday.

The thought kept jangling in my mind. Where had I come across a similar idea? Surely it was only a few days ago? Surely I could remember? Then, this morning just before sitting down to write this blog posting, I did.

“Life is funny sometimes – how small acorns of an idea grow into something so much more and take on a life of their own.”

The comment was in an email earlier this week from a teacher I’d worked with a few years ago. At that time, she took up storytelling with her class in a big way. It’s great to hear that evidently she has stuck with it. Obviously, it’s grown into something important for her.

Both comments made me remember a story.

The story: Tomorrow’s flowers

bluebellsOnce there were two water pots. One was whole. One was slightly cracked. Each day, their owner, a farmer, would sling them over his donkey, one each side, to go and fetch water from the well.

On the way to the well every morning, the uncracked pot would mercilessly boast to the other. ‘I’ve got no cracks but you’re rubbish. I don’t know why our farmer doesn’t chuck you away.’

And so on…and on … Every day it was the same (and I think there are some people who are just as destructive in the way they put others down.)

In the end, the pot with the crack burst out to the farmer: ‘I can’t stand it any longer. I’m no use at all. You should throw me away. Who would want a pot that is cracked?’

The farmer said, ‘Let me show you something.’

As he led his donkey home from the well that day, he told the cracked pot to look down at the ground. As the pot did so, it saw that, all the way home on that side of the road, there were beautiful blossoming flowers.

‘You see,’ said the farmer, ‘with every journey we make back from the well, the crack that is in you means that water falls from you on this side of the road. As it does, it gives moisture to the ground and this enables the seeds of these flowers to grow and the flowers to flourish. That is your great value to me and the world. That is why I keep you.’

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primulasIt’s a wish we all might share – that everyone could come to know their own value. One thing I love about the sharing of stories is how it can help that. It enables seeds in the form of ideas to flourish and sometimes, right there and then, you can almost see them start to blossom.

See you next week. Meantime, please will you help my Blog to flourish by becoming a subscriber? Just fill in your email address in the appropriate box on the top left. This means you’d get an email each Saturday when a new posting goes up.

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