On the side of a mountain, in a meadow full of wildflowers and long green grass, there was a rock.
A big rock.
A very round, very smooth, very large rock.
His name was Boulder.
Boulder had been there for one thousand years.
He had seen a lot of things pass by.
Deer. Foxes. Birds. Hikers. Once, a very confused hedgehog who was going the wrong way.
They all passed by.
None of them stayed. 🪨
🏔️ Just Sitting There
Swish. A deer walked past.
“Hello!” said Boulder.
The deer didn’t hear him. Rocks are very quiet.
Flap. A bird landed on top of his head.
“Oh! Hello! Hello!” said Boulder.
The bird ruffled its feathers, looked around, and flew away.
Gone.
Boulder sighed.
It was a very slow, very rocky sigh that took about four hours.
“I wish,” said Boulder to nobody, “that someone would just… stay.”
🌸 Something Small
One spring morning, something landed on Boulder’s side.
Tiny. Light. Barely anything at all.
A seed.
The seed didn’t fly away.
The seed didn’t walk off.
The seed just… stayed.
Boulder didn’t breathe. (He wasn’t very good at breathing anyway.)
Days went past.
A small green thing appeared.
Then a stem.
Then a leaf.
Then — slowly, slowly — a flower.
A little yellow flower, right there on Boulder’s side.
“Oh,” said Boulder.
💛 Noah Finds Them Both
Noah came up the mountain path and stopped.
“Look at that big rock,” said Noah. “With a flower on it!”
Noah walked over and sat down against Boulder’s warm, sunny side.
Just to rest.
Just for a while.
Boulder felt the small warm weight of Noah leaning against him.
Noah felt the solid, steady warmth of the rock.
They stayed like that for a long quiet time.
The flower nodded in the breeze.
And Boulder — who had been waiting one thousand years — felt something very new.
Not lonely anymore. 🪨