Long ago, when the big island of Madagascar was but a small village, there lived a young baobab tree. The tropical rains were good for her. Already, she sprouted deep leaves of blue and green.
Then, one midsummer evening, spectacular flowers with soft white petals the size of saucers opened on her stems for the very first time. The fresh petals filled the air with the sweet scent of nectar. The baobab felt as if a beautiful cloud had come down to the ground and wrapped her in sweetness!
“Where is this coming from?” she wondered.
The baobab looked up and smiled when she noticed the clouds in the sky.
“Of course! It’s Nature, which gives me the water to grow my beautiful flowers and all the things that make me happy!”
Feeling where her happiness was coming from, the baobab wanted to give something to Nature in return for its kindness.
First, she thought of her deep green leaves, but then she realized that she already received her leaves from Nature. Next, she thought of her beautiful petals, but she also received her petals from Nature. The baobab thought about it for a very long time, but she could not think of anything new she could give to Nature, and this made her feel sad.
But as soon as she felt sad, the breeze blowing past her felt sad, too, and whispered it to the leaves. The leaves whispered it to the birds, and the birds whispered it to the stars. All around her, the baobab could hear her heart whispering: “What can I give to Nature? Must I receive? Is there nothing else?”
Her heart whispered, “I want to give!”
The baobab cried, “I want to be giving like Nature, but I only know how to receive. What am I going to do? Perhaps I should just stop receiving anything!”
Now, Nature had been waiting for exactly this moment; it was time for the baobab to discover her true purpose. That same night, hungry fruit bats swooped down on her flowers to suckle the sweet nectar from her petals. At first, the noisy bats clinging to her petals frightened the baobab.
“My petals, my petals!” she cried, “Why are you ruining my beautiful petals!”
“We are here to carry the pollen to your seed pods,” said the bats. “This is how you will grow fruit.”
“Ooooh!” cried the Baobab, now understanding. “You are helping me grow fruit! Is the nectar as sweet as it smells?”
“It is delightful; thank you!” replied the bats.
The baobab was happy that the fruit bats had such a tasty dinner. She wasn’t even worried when the very next morning all of her beautiful petals fell to the forest floor. She watched happily as the tortoise made a feast of the fallen petals. Now, the baobab felt a sweet new connection to the others nearby.
When the days grew cooler, the baobab began dropping all of her leaves, but the fuzzy fruits remained hanging on her branches. As the tortoise buried himself deep under her leaves to stay warm, the baobab began to wonder how she could give her fruit to Nature. Just then, a troop of lemur monkeys climbed up her branches. Suddenly, there were lemurs everywhere, swinging by their feet to reach the fruits.
“Delicious, delicious!” sang the little lemurs, dangling on her branches.
The baobab giggled with delight, shaking loose her fruit for the hungry little lemurs.
The lemurs leaped between her branches to catch the falling fruit until there were no more left.
With no leaves or fruit at all, the baobab knew her trunk and branches were perfect for storing water. She could give water to the others nearby. During the long season of the dry riverbeds, thirsty elephants tickled her trunk to get a drink. And many other animals squeezed as much water as they needed from her soft, wet bark.
As the seasons passed, the baobab learned how to open a door in her heart to all of Nature’s creatures. Her branches with their hollows, dents, and bloated stems became a shelter for bush babies and squirrels, lizards and tree frogs, spiders and snakes. The holes in her trunk became homes for birds and owls.
Nature’s plan worked perfectly! The baobab learned how to give. The more she gave, the more she could receive. In this way, she could receive all the happiness that Nature had prepared for her from the beginning.
Now, in the heart of the baobab tree, all Nature’s creatures live together in happiness and harmony. And every midsummer evening, she merrily wears a crown of white petals …because this makes Nature happy, too!