Cultivate Your Own Garden

Why Wait for Those Who’ve Already Left?

At the top of the most beautiful mountain, in a town with discreet beauty, lived a woman named Esperança. She was known for her ability to listen to the hearts of others, always offering what was considered fair advice. She was dedicated and committed to taking care of her garden. Although she wasn’t very skilled at tasks like cooking and sewing, in the garden, she was unmatched. Esperança had a captivating presence, making her a companion everyone wanted in their lives.

Esperança loved a young man named Logos, known for his brilliant intelligence in mathematics and logic. Logos had a natural sweetness that captivated everyone, though he lacked the skill to tend to gardens. However, with patience, Esperança was gradually teaching him to cultivate plants while also learning from all of Logos’s wisdom. She used to love it.

But Logos moved to a distant city, pursuing his dreams of becoming a great rockstar. Before leaving, Esperança and Logos made a promise: when their paths crossed again, they would be together forever.

Years passed, and Esperança continued her life in the village, always with a distant stare, fixed on an uncertain future. She turned down other opportunities, believing that her promise with Logos was the only truth that mattered. Each letter from Logos brought successes and adventures but never mentioned a return.

One day, while walking through the blooming fields, Esperança met a very wise man, and in his gaze, he held all wisdom. The man looked at her kindly and said, “My dear, why do you wait for a decision from someone who has already chosen his path?”

Esperança replied, with a tone of sadness, “I wait because we made a promise. And I believed that when you make a promise from the heart, it should be kept. His love is worth it. He is worth it.”

But the very wise man smiled with understanding and said, “Imagine you planted a cherry tree in your garden. You gave it your best care, watered it with love and affection, though it’s fair to note that on some days you overwatered it, almost drowning it. But that wasn’t what made it perish. And so, it didn’t survive. You didn’t wish for this, but sometimes, no matter how much we love and care for something, it doesn’t survive.”

Esperança, still reluctant to accept that message, pondered, “No, definitely the cherry tree would have died from the excess water, and that was my fault.”

The man, serene, calmed her by saying, “Even if you overwatered it one day or another, most of the other days, you cared for it correctly. If that had been the time to bloom, it would have bloomed.”

These words stayed in Esperança’s heart. But Esperança suffered in equal measure to her love.

During this period, she noticed that her garden was dying from lack of care. She then rose and went to tend to her garden.

The garden healed her, for the garden loved her.

What each one plants in the earth, they will one day harvest. She realized that while waiting for Logos, she had trapped herself in a decision that no longer belonged to her. Logos had decided to follow his dreams, which didn’t include Esperança, because if it did, they would have solved it together.

In that moment, she remembered another promise from Logos when he said, “We always find a way. Together we always solve everything.”

But this time, Esperança finally understood that it was time to solve things on her own. One night, at the top of the most beautiful mountain, in a town with discreet beauty, she wrote a final letter to Logos, as they used to do, thanking him for being an essential part of her journey but recognizing that her garden was too beautiful to be rejected.

She forgave him for the unfulfilled promise and, with a smile, released the letter to the wind, as if letting go of a part of her own heart.

Esperança wasn’t with anyone else, because she found fulfillment in devoting her love to her garden and listening to and caring for others’ hearts. Thus, she lived a happy and prosperous life, with much peace in her heart, always having a heart willing to love what loves her.

Logos and Esperança reconnected as friends, because in Esperança there was only love. Logos achieved his dream and became a great rockstar.

Perhaps this wasn’t the happy ending, but it was the chosen one, and life, unlike fairy tales, works that way.