Theme: Love

The seedlings

I was still little when a new baby came to our house. Surely I should rejoice with my little brother but the care and attentions which our parents surrounded him made me jealous and I often wept thinking that I had lost my parent’s old affection.

Grandpa grew a vegetable garden in the back of our house. One day when I was more poisoned with jealousy than ever, he called me. I went to see what he wanted.

He was crouched on a corner where he sowed lettuce. The tiny, tender green twigs shone the light of that clear quiet morning.

Grandpa who was steeped in the task of gently separating the wiggles, did not seem to have sensed my emotion.

He told me:

- Watch! I'm separating the seedlings and then I'll plant them in the right place. You know, my dear, affection is like lettuce: it needs to be divided to grow better. When I was your age, I liked my mother very much. I was a boy and one day I met a young girl, I married her and we had a baby. Then came another and another. But each one who arrived did not take a little bit of the other. Love is a very curious thing, more it is divided, more it grows and stronger it becomes. Your father and mother are very busy with the baby because he is small, fragile and helpless. But you can believe that their love for you has grown even bigger...

As I saw the lettuce growing, beautiful and lush, a new joy was born in my jealous little heart.

The affection of Daddy and Mommy, divided, also grew, each day, like that plant that had to be divided so that one seedling would not suffocate the other.

Many times after it when I was disturbed by the desire of exclusive possession, Grandpa's plantation seemed to retract in my mind, giving me a new perspective of peace and serenity.

More divided, stronger and deeper love becomes. I could never forget that...

Text by Wallace Leal V. Rodrigues, from the book "And for the rest of life..."

Translation:
Larissa Martine - larissa_am@hotmail.com

marcelapradacontato@gmail.com