Long Long ago when the flowers first awoke to life on dear Mother Earth, each got to choose the color of it’s petals and live wherever it chose.
“I will cover the ground and make the bare soil happy with bright green blades” Cried the Grass
“I will live in the fields and by Roadsides” laughed the Daisy.
“I too” Echooed the buttercup, the cornflower, the poppy and the clover.
“Oh give me the ponds and the lakes” the water lilly called
“and let us have the streams and the marshes” begged the Irises & Cowslips
“We love the shaded woodland spots near our friends the ferns”lisped the shy forget-me-nots and violets
“And we wish to be loved within the gardens” declared the Roes, and the pansies.
“I love the warm dry sun, So I will go to the sandy desert” Called out the cactus.
Soon all places within mother nature had been filled with the beauty and medicine of the flowers and herbs except the bare ridges of the high Mountains. For no plants wished to venture to such cold and desolate places. “there is not enough warmth, there is not enough food, it is so bare and chilly” They all decided “ let the gray moss go and cover the rocks”
The gray moss did not like this idea “ How can I live without moisture, warmth or nourishment? Surely the bleak places of the mountains must do without flowers. How foolish it would be to try and make the ragged mountain tops lovely?”
But the Gray moss had not yet chosen a place to live and everything else was taken.
So the gray moss climbed over the bare rocks and beyond the places where the forests ceased to grow. All was desolate and silent up there. Up higher and higher he crept until he reached the jagged rocks above the clouds covered in ice and snow. There he stopped short in amazement.
For quietly clinging to the crags and blossoming was a gentle star shaped flower. It was as white as the snow and its heart was soft and yellow. So cold was it atop the mountain the little flower had covered its leaves in soft wool to keep warm and alive despite the bleakness.
“Oh!” Cried the gray moss in surprise. “ Who are you? What are you doing here where there is no warmth, no moisture, no nourishment? We are high above the forests, even higher than the clouds. Did the others make you come here like they have made me?”
The little starry flower nodded in the chill wind “welcome, I am Edelweiss, I came here on my own, quietly. I came because the mountains needed me. A blossom that might brighten this solitude, for there are no flowers up here but me.”
The edelweiss is closer to a star than to the daisy, the buttercup, or the rose. It holds a special place in the hearts of those who have courage, those who dare to seek it out high above the clouds, where it grows ever gladly. They call it Nobel White- Edelweiss! Love, like Edelweiss, knows self-sacrifice.
A special note: I did not write this story, I merely adapted a version that I found. I have yet to find out who the real author of the story is or if this is just a legend passed down to children. Should you know the original author, please let me know so that i can give proper credit.
Whispering Violets 