Sun, World, Flower (short fiction), page 2

SUN, WORLD, FLOWER
continued from page 1

"I want to spin around you and you only," she told him. And right away,

as if to prove herself someone of her word, she began to do so. Caught in an

orbit of love, the rock spun 'round and 'round the sun, dizzy and giddy,

overjoyed to be on this merry-go-round, to be forever (she hoped) circling

and circling 'round the very one she loved, so that the beloved became the

center of her own existence.

This finding of an orbit of love had quite an effect on the rock's feelings

toward herself. She began, in fact, to think, "I'm much more than a mere

rock. Before, maybe, I was only a rock. But look at me now! I'm blessed

to orbit the sun! I'm no mere rock, nor even a mere meteor. I've

become...yes, I've become a world!"

This understanding deepened the rock. Her solid, hard mass began to

soften in places..to erode..until there were some places that were still stone-

hard, and others that were soft and pliable. These places had become soil.

The sun felt happy with the love of the new world spinning around it.

"Your devotion brings me much joy!" He said. "You have relieved my long-

time loneliness. And your love inspires me to keep giving back to you, more

and more brightly and purely. I don't seek merely to have you in my

orbit..although that seems to be to be all you desire."

The sun continued to shine on the world. Deep, deep in the bowels of

the world, fed by the healthful rays of the Sun, a seed mysteriously began to

form. It lay still, as though asleep, daily nurtured by the sun's love and the

nutrients of the world's soil.

A choir of angels, passing near that corner of the universe just then, felt

the precious love there and the angels began to weep. Their tears watered

the seed nestled deep in the world's soil. When the seed had soaked enough

water up, it sprouted and began to plant roots deeper still, and to reach up

toward the sun with tiny seedling arms. Daily it grew, like a dancer swaying

to the music of the sun's rays, until one day it broke the surface of the world!

Now there was green in the world, there was tender, growing life. The

little plant, daughter of the sun and the world, kept dancing and swaying. She

unfurled more and more small, bright leaves, lifting herself up into the clear air,

her roots deep in the body of her loving mother, her body stretching gracefully

toward her dear father.

And then, one day..one morning in the cool air, when her father had just

arrived to pay his daily visit..she bloomed. Oh yes, she bloomed, with a

purple-pink flower whose filigree petals fanned far out into the pure air.

"I give you this gift," said her mother, the world, to her father, the sun.

"She's my gift to you, as well!" laughed the sun. And the air all around

the flower filled with the perfume of their love.

After that, the world gradually came to flourish with innumerable,

different kinds of life-forms. From that day to this, though, flowers

everywhere celebrate the union of father and mother, sun and world, and

bless us with their sweet, miraculous fragrance, reminding us that for love

alone does the world orbit the sun; for the sake of love alone does the

advancing stream of life surge ever forward; and that love is the only thing life

is really about, anywhere under the sun.