ReSown

Chapter 1: Intro

There was a blank place in a lonely white plain. That white plain seemed to stretch forever, and there was an honest chance that it actually did. There was no one to perceive this plain, so who could define its size? It floated through existence unpopulated and secluded from all the rest of reality. It was itself a lonely empty world.

Or at least it would have been if not for at the very center of the blank place. At some point that blank place was broken up with a single point. That point itself was comparable to a grain of rice in the sea, but to its lone inhabitant it was comparable to a mountain range wrapped around a sprawling field. In that sprawling field was a massive garden. And in that massive garden was the lone inhabitant, living alone in that blank place that made up his universe.

That lone inhabitant was a man, and he was a gardener. He cared for the garden he lived in. He had lived there his entire life. He had even been born into it, almost as if his existence was solely to fill the role of its gardener.

In the very center of the garden was a clearing. And in the center of even that clearing a single sapling was planted. It grew there alone, cherished above all the rest of the garden. It had grown there for a long time, and yet it remained as only a small sprout, reaching only inches from the ground. Over that small sapling stood the gardener. He held in his hand a watering can, still dripping from being poured moments earlier. His fist gripped the can tightly.

The gardener was a larger man. At about six foot, and 240 pounds, he was even somewhat heavyset. His hair was a soggy mop that matted to his scalp, only letting loose into a few tendrils that dripped down his neck. He didn't wear overalls or any gardening gear. Instead, he wore a loose long sleeve shirt, as well as worn and dirty jeans. If there had been some to give an impression to, he would have given the impression of a homeless man. But as there was no other person on this plain, the homeless gardener stood alone.

One can only face rejection so many times." The gardener gently and somberly whispered. "Why do you deny me after all this time?

The sapling did not respond unfortunately, leaving him to his grim thoughts.

It has been 8 long years since I planted this tree. He thought. And while I knew it would be many years till it grew its fruit, it is heartbreaking to be unable to see it progress. After so long I have questioned myself countlessly. Have I not watered it? Have I not protected it from animals and insects? Have I not dug about it? Did I not nourish the soil? Have I failed to place it in the sunlight? When it was beset with weeds did I not cull them? When it wilted did I not support it? When it was cold did I not warm it with even my own warmth? Did I not protect it from wind and storm and snow and hail? Did I forget it ever and leave it to rot? No, I know that I did all that I was supposed to. So why does it still refuse to grow?!

It could have been hours that the gardener stood there. He was so lost in thought that he began to mentally shut out his surroundings.

What am I to do now? His thoughts continued. Surely it's fair for me to eventually abandon this project, right? Is it so wrong for me to give up on an impossible task? It has been well past the season of its growth. It's a faulty plant and I am not wrong for cutting my losses.

The gardener looked up to the sun. His eyes were weary.

"Right?" He whispered.

The gardener was in a crucial time of his life. It was the time in life when all people have to consider if the life they are living and the goals they are pursuing are worth dedicating themselves to. The gardener wanted his life to have a purpose. He wanted to know that what he did with his life was worth it.

The gardener did truly care for the sapling. That much was obvious to him, if just because of how long he had spent nurturing it. But throughout the years he began to doubt if it would ever bloom. He could give up now and render all the effort he had ever put into it as pointless. He could also continue nurturing the plant for eternity and devote the rest of his life to a nothing burger of an empty cause. It would have been a life without real purpose. And what was to say he would always be able to nurture the plant? Someday a calamity he wouldn't be able to stop could just end the life of the plant, rendering all of his effort meaningless. In a way he was damned if he did and damned if he did not.