Mari the Marigold's Long Dark Night of the Soul

Mari is a marigold that lives in a beautiful garden. She is a happy flower. She has many friends. Life is good in the garden, but not without some hard times too. There is a kind and gentle Gardener that tends the garden. He wears big rubber boots and overalls. Many times, the Gardener comes with a water hose which he uses to carefully water the flowers that live there.

One hot summer day Mari said “When is the Gardener coming back? I am ready for some water. My mouth is dry and my leaves are gettin’ wilty. I feel like a Cesar Salad left in the back seat of somebody’s car!” she said. She tried to keep a sense of humor about these things, at least at first.

Her friend Sunnie the sunflower looked at her in surprise.

“Why the Gardener came by with his water hose just this morning. Didn’t you see him?”

“What? Why didn’t I get any water?” Mari said, shocked.

“Well I don’t know why you didn’t” said Sunnie, “maybe he is angry with you and didn’t want to give you any water.”

“Angry?” thought Mari. That didn’t sound like the Gardener she knew.

Mari decided to trust that the Gardener was not angry with her. “He’ll come by with the water hose soon” she reassured herself.

The next day was even hotter. She spoke to her friend Daisy about it.

“When is the Gardener coming back? I am ready for some water. My mouth is dry and my leaves are gettin’ wilty” Mari said, forcing a smile.

Her friend Daisy looked at her confused.

“Why, the Gardener came by just this morning, didn’t you see him?”

“No” said Mari, discouraged and frustrated, “I didn’t.”

“Well I don’t know why you didn’t” said Daisy, “maybe he forgot about you.”

“Forgot about me?” thought Mari. That didn’t sound like the Gardener she knew.

Mari decided to trust that the Gardener had not forgotten her. “He’ll come by with the water hose soon” she reassured herself.

And the next day was even hotter. She spoke to her friend Cathy the cactus.

“When is the Gardener coming back? I am dying of thirst!” Mari said, in desperation.

Cathy the cactus had a lot of baggage of her own still to work through and she spoke out of her bitter root. “He tried to give me water this morning, but I held him back with my long cactus pricklies on account of my intimacy issues.”

“I didn’t see him or his water hose.” Mari said, as she began to loose hope.

“Well I don’t know why you didn’t” said Daisy, “He must not love you anymore” she said matter-of-factly.

“Doesn’t love me anymore?” thought Mari. That didn’t sound like the Gardener she knew. But she couldn’t explain why she hadn’t seen him or why he hadn’t come by with his water hose. He knew she needed it! Where was he?

Mari decided to trust that the Gardener had not stopped loving her. “He’ll come by with the water hose soon” she reassured herself. But it was getting really hard.

That night Mari woke up to the exciting sound of rolling thunder. As lightning lit up the sky, she saw a sight that made her heart leap! The Gardener! He was standing right beside her just smiling a reassuring smile. It began to rain on both of them. The cool rain! It soaked into her roots, it washed the dust from her leaves, and it dripped from the long thick beard of the Gardener as he stood over her and began to laugh! They laughed together and then he spoke.

“Mari, you know I was not angry with you. You know I had not forgotten you. And you know that nothing in this world could make me stop loving you!”

Just then, Mari noticed that the rain was not falling on the other flowers in the garden. It was only falling on the two of them! This rain was just for her.

Sunnie's Choice

Mari is a marigold that lives in a beautiful garden. She is a happy flower. She has many friends. Life is good in the garden, but not without some hard times too.

There is a kind and gentle Gardener that tends the garden. He wears big rubber boots and overalls. The Gardener has a thick, black beard and sometimes tucks pencils into it. From time to time he takes out a notebook, and scribbles something into it with his pencils. This makes Mari laugh.

One of Mari’s best friends is Sunnie the sunflower. Sunnie is tall and has a big bright face full of sunflower seeds. Mari and Sunnie are best friends, and they love to talk about the weather, or about video games, or best of all, about the kind and gentle Gardener.

One day when Mari and Sunnie were talking, the biggest, blackest, noisiest crow that the flowers had ever seen flew in and alighted right on Sunnie’s face! Her head swayed back and forth a little from the weight of him. He let out a terrible noise, “CA-CAW!” and every flower in the garden looked to see what the trouble was.

What they saw was alarming. The big crow peck-peck-pecked a sunflower seed right off of Sunnie’s face and then flew away with it in its beak!

“Ouch!” Sunnie yelped.

“Oh my!” said Mari.

“Did you see that?” Sunnie said with fear and anger in her voice. “That crow he… why, I can’t believe… I know he didn’t!!” Sunnie was beside herself with anger.

Mari felt bad for her friend. She listened to Sunnie fuss about it for the rest of the day as she tried to be supportive.

“Yes, I know it.” Mari would say, and “No, I can’t believe it either.”

Mari looked across the garden and saw something that surprised her. The crow was sitting on the Gardener’s shoulder and they were walking in their direction. The Gardener was talking and scribbling some notes in his little notebook.

As they came near, the Gardener said “Sunnie, Mr. Crow has something he wants to ask you.”

Then Mr. Crow spoke up softly, “Sunnie, it was (caw) wrong of me to take your seeds (caw) without permission. Would you please (caw) forgive me?”

Just then the Gardener tore off a sheet of paper from his little notebook and put it into his mouth. Everyone looked at him as if to expect an explanation, but he just chewed it and smiled broadly with his lips closed.

Mari tried not to laugh.

“No I won’t forgive you” Sunnie said sharply. “It still hurts where you pecked me!”

The gardener swallowed the paper and spoke to Sunnie.

“You know Sunnie, you can forgive someone even if you are still stinging from what they did to you. Forgiveness is a choice. It’s not just ‘feeling’ better about what happened, it’s choosing to let the other person off the hook anyway, even if it still hurts.”

They all sat in silence for a minute while Sunnie thought about it.

“OK, I will forgive you” Sunnie said.

“Thanks” the crow said, and he flew off.

The Gardener asked her how she felt now.

“Well” she said, “I am still sore from yesterday, but somehow, my heart feels better now.”

The Gardener laughed his gentle laugh and tucked the pencil back into his beard as he walked on.

“Good, Sunnie. That’s good.” And as he did, he ate another piece of paper.

Mari and the Pruning Shears

Mari is a marigold that lives in a beautiful garden. She is a happy flower. She has many friends. Life is good in the garden, but not without some hard times too.

One of the best parts of the garden is in the morning when the kind and gentle Gardener comes by. He wears big rubber boots and overalls. Sometimes he carries thick work gloves tucked into one back pocket and a pair of pruning shears in the other. Mari doesn’t like to look at the shears. Many times, the Gardener comes with a water hose which he uses to carefully water the flowers that live there. As he moves around the garden, he talks to the flowers.

“Hello Mari. You look happy today. Here’s some cool water for your roots. And let’s see how you’re doing under these leaves.”

He lifts up Mari’s leaves and bends down to take a look. Mari is a little afraid, because she knows that under her leaves there is place that is not pretty.

“Oh my little Mari, you have a broken place. I’m so sorry that has happened to you. I’m sure that hurt you badly. My sweet little Mari. It seems that some bugs have gotten into the broken place and made it worse. Don’t worry, we’ll take care of it. My sweet little Mari.”

Mari wasn’t sure, but it seemed that the Gardener had tears in his eyes.

He first cleared out some of the rocks that were on the ground around her. His hands were gentle and he hummed a bit as he picked some twigs out of her leaves. She was happy to see them go and it made her feel cleaner right away. She was relieved that he didn’t fuss at her for being broken; she loved having his approval.

But then the gardener reached into his back pocket and pulled out the shears. Mari was suddenly quite afraid! He had never used the shears on her before! Not the shears! Not the shears!

Mari felt the sharp pain as he cut the broken and buggy part away. It really hurt! She was suddenly angry with the Gardener! Why did he do that? That wasn’t making her better, it was making her hurt! She felt a little betrayed by the Gardener; he had always been so nice before. She wanted to say “Leave me alone!” but as she looked at him, his eyes were so full of kindness and love, that she stopped. Her heart melted. And she just cried a little.

The Gardener pulled the broken part away and threw it in a bucket. He gave her a little more water. Then he spoke to her gently.

“OK girl, I know that hurt. But it’s going to be better now. Now that we’ve removed that broken, buggy part, you will be sprouting new buds in no time. I can’t wait to see how lovely you will be.”

And he was right. Soon Mari was putting out new leaves and buds and was growing like a weed, only she was a flower. The gardener still came by every day, but Mari didn’t fear him or his shears anymore. She knew that even if he did have to trim a part of her from time to time, he did it because he loved her. Even if it hurt, it was for her best. She had learned to trust him.

Mari and the Rosies

Mari is a marigold that lives in a beautiful garden. She is a happy flower. She has many friends. Life is good in the garden, but not without some hard times too. There is a kind and gentle Gardener that tends the garden. He wears big rubber boots and overalls. Many times, the Gardener comes with a water hose which he uses to carefully water the flowers that live there.

The garden has lots of different kinds of flowers; some are tall, some are short, and some have thorns. Near the center of the garden there are several rose bushes, and each one has dozens of blooms. One day, the blooms were talking. They were talking loudly, and Mari couldn’t help but overhear them.

“Rosie, aren’t you, like, totally excited?”

“Like, should I be, Rosie?”

“Rosie! Don’t you realize it’s February now? And you totally know what that means! Valentine’s Day!”

Mari never understood why all the roses had the same name.

“Valentine’s Day is like, the best day of the whole year! All the people are like, totally in love and stuff, and do you know their favorite way to say ‘I love you’?”

“Yeah! It’s by giving roses! Rosie, you’re right, I totally love Valentine’s Day!”

“Yeah, I’m sooo glad I’m not some other kind of flower!”

“Yeah, like a freaky tall Sunflower!”

“Yeah, or like a plain old Daisy!”

“Yeah, or like a dumpy little Marigold!”

They laughed hard and loud, a little too loud, and then they sent text messages to each other that said “BFF”.

Mari was hurt. Dumpy? She never thought of herself as dumpy before. That means short and squatty. The more she thought about it, the more it seemed true. She was dumpy. She wasn’t pretty like the Rosies. They were long and slender and beautiful. She was more like shrubbery, really. She wished she were a rose, instead of a marigold.

About that time the Gardener was making his rounds with the water hose. When he got to Mari, he stopped to look at her and could see that she was sad.

“Oh Mari, I can see that you’ve been listening to the Rosies. I heard what they said, and I know it hurt you. Let me tell you the truth, though, Mari. If I wanted a rose in this part of the garden, then I would have planted one. But I wanted a beautiful marigold instead. You see, when I made this garden, I could tell that the most perfect flower for right here was a marigold. And I don’t make mistakes! I love your bright orange blooms, and most of all your delicious scent. I made you just the way I wanted to, and I planted you in just the right spot.”

As always, the Gardener’s words brought peace to her troubled heart. Why was she so foolish to listen to the Rosies? Next time she would remember who she was; she was important not because of what she was, or how she looked, or even how she smelled, but because of Who made her!