The Last Seeds

All summer, Sunny the sunflower stood at the edge of the garden.

In spring, she had been a tiny seedling barely taller than the grass around her. She pushed through the soil, stretched toward the sun, and slowly grew taller with each passing week.

By midsummer, she towered above the other flowers. Her bright yellow petals caught the morning light, and people often stopped to admire her.

Children pointed excitedly when they saw how tall she had become. Bees visited throughout the day, moving among the hundreds of tiny flowers packed into the center of her face.

Sunny enjoyed the busy days of summer.

As the weeks passed, the garden began to change. The mornings grew cooler, and the shadows stretched longer across the ground. One by one, Sunny's petals loosened and drifted away.

The bees visited less often. The children hurried past on their way to school. Sometimes she wondered whether there was much left for a sunflower to do once the petals were gone.

Autumn winds tugged at her stalk, and heavy rains soaked the garden. The flower that had once felt light now seemed heavier with each passing week. Sunny did not understand why.

Still, she remained standing.

Then one morning, a goldfinch landed on her head.

It pecked at something in the center of her flower and flew away.

The next morning it returned with another goldfinch. Before long, birds were visiting every day. They balanced on her stalk, searched among the seeds, and filled the autumn garden with movement and song.

Sunny had never seen so many visitors.

The birds seemed perfectly happy, though her petals were long gone.

After the birds had flown away, Sunny looked closely at the center of her flower.

There, arranged in neat spirals, were hundreds of seeds.

For a long moment she simply stared.

She remembered the tiny flowers that had once filled the center of her face. She remembered the bees that had visited them throughout the summer.

While she had been growing, the seeds had been forming.

Quietly.
Patiently.
All season long.

At last, the weight made sense.
She had been carrying the seeds.

Some had already disappeared. Others remained packed together in the center of her flower.

As autumn deepened, Sunny began to notice their journeys. One fell into the grass below. A gust of wind carried another away. Several vanished after a rainy afternoon.

Where were they going?

She could only wonder.

Somewhere beyond the garden, a sparrow carried a seed.

Somewhere beneath the soil, another waited for spring.

And there were still others whose journeys had only just begun.