One day Love and Innocence played happily in a blooming garden. The colours in the fragrant garden danced in the fresh breeze towards the sunlight. The echo of Love and Innocence’s harmonious song filled the air for miles around.
The days passed and their glorious sound resonated through the yonder fields where Greed and Competition lived. Greed and Competition stopped their game of chase. Greed struggled to catch his breath having ran for so long. While Competition polished his fingernails against his chest, happy to have one again.
They noticed Curiosity cross through their field.
‘Hey, Curiosity, do you know where that sound is coming from?’ Greed asked.
‘No, but I’m following my nose to find out, it sounds like it’s coming from this direction.’ Curiosity nodded ahead, filling his nose with the warm Summer breeze.
‘I’ll beat you both to it!’ Competition took to a sprint.
Love and Innocence giggled in glee, watering the shrubs, the trees and the flowers. Innocence spoke to the wildlife, telling stories of mystical lands and dreams come true. Love nurtured the landscape being sure to tend to the crops that Innocence had missed.
‘Can we play?’ Competition’s shadow seemed to divide the meadow in two, his feet grounded in temporary rest at the imaginary line at the edge of the meadow.
‘Oh! Hello.” Innocence’s mind filled with wonder. After all this is a huge meadow and the more the merrier to help it to grow.
Curiosity couldn’t help himself, he was already buzzing through the meadow. Quite like a contortionist bending over backward in and under the plants. He climbed the trees and swung from their branches, testing their strength and his ability to land. He sang with the birds and hopped with the bunnies. He snailed with the hedgehogs and became one with the land.
Greed scaled the meadow, its awe, its beauty, its happiness. The plans for his future mapped out in his mind. His heart raced faster at the potential before him.
Love and Innocence welcomed the three. Innocence got busy with introductions sharing her wisdom. While Love observed the new dynamic.
Before long the cooler winds brought dark clouds overhead. Innocence continued to explain the reason for being to competition, but she became lost in his shadow and her sweet voice drowned out by thundering skies.
Greed got busy building an empire of his own. Uprooting the trees and shrubs. The flowers sat wilting on his hall table vases. Their fragrance tried its very best to sweeten the air.
One day, curiosity called love aside.
‘Love, how do you feel about this?’ He sat on a rock, his hands cupping his face. Love tilted his head, an invitation to share. ‘I mean, the day I arrived here, not so long ago,” Curiosity grabbed the invitation and held onto it for dear life. ‘This place was like a different world. Now, competition’s shadow dominates the meadow. It’s like he divides the whole place in two. As for Greed over there in his Almighty Kingdom Come house, if he keeps going the way he is there’ll be nothing left of this place. It’s like he’s sucking the life out of, well, life. What do you think Love?”
Love took a deep breath and nodded. He thought about his reverence to the land and recalled what used to be. His eyes took time to take in his home as it Is now and he hung his head to his heart in quiet search of wisdom.
‘Leave it with me.’ He assured Curiosity.
The following morning the sun shone high. Love called a meeting with Curiosity, Competition and Greed. He left Innocence in peaceful slumber.
‘I’ve had a think about things and the way of the land.” The whole landscape seems to move as Love began to speak. Love stood tall and took a long deep breath. “You must leave and go back to wherever you came from.” He looked Competition and Greed right in the eye.
‘Why?’ scoffed Greed.
“Because where Love and Innocence reign there is no place for Greed and there is no place for Competition. As for Curiosity, you have a home.”
Hilary Connor x
