The Flower in the Rain
While the world hid behind locked doors, Maya stepped into the drizzle. Her yellow raincoat was a bright spark against the heavy grey sky. In her small, trembling hands, she held a wilted daisy. She had tried to keep it dry, tried to keep it standing tall, but the wind had been too strong.
Her eyes, large and filled with a quiet sadness, looked at the petals. She wasn't crying because the flower was dying; she was sad because she realized that some things cannot be protected forever. But as she stood under her sturdy umbrella, she noticed something. Even though the flower was bent, its roots were still thirsty for the very rain that had knocked it down.
The Depth: We often view pain (the rain) and loss (the wilted flower) as the end of a story. But for Maya, the rain is both the reason the flower fell and the reason it will eventually grow back. The "depth" here is understanding that vulnerability is not weakness. By standing in the rain instead of running from it, Maya learns that growth requires both the storm and the sunshine.
