Gnom - everyone is important in their own way

story written by psychologist Maria Baumgarten

In a far land, gnomes lived in harmony. Gnomes are small, one-centimeter beings that live in the trunks of old trees and have hidden secret gardens in the bushes.

Andrei, a smart and thoughtful gnome, also lived in this community. He liked to meditate, to listen to nature, to smell the flowers, to accompany the butterflies in their flight. He was also called the garden gnome, being the only gardener in the region who knew how to care for each flower and plant. Although very knowledgeable in all that gardening meant, the gnome often felt lonely and abandoned by his comrades, who did not consider his work, believing that the flowers could grow on their own and that the plants could grow without care.

Countless times the gnome heard them around the corner, saying, "What a thing, to care for plants and flowers! Big deal! Plants would grow anyway, rain waters them, soil feeds them!". Feeling more and more sad and useless, one day our gnome decided to leave for Mount Loneliness, where no one else ventures. Said and done and, suddenly, the garden no longer had a gnome to take care of it.

However, with the departure of the garden gnome, the beautiful flowering ground of the gnomes began to lose color, the greens were pale, the flowers bend their heads down, fading one by one. They were missing something and no one knew what. At the same time, everyone knew that a gnome with an unkempt, ugly garden, in turn, lost its luster and slowly became ill and dies.

The land of gnomes began to lose its magic and slowly fade away. The only one who could solve the situation was gnome Andrei, who now sat alone and sad on the Loneliness Mountain. After some time, when Andrei gathered his courage to raise the head and looked down from the mountain at the lands he had so lovingly cared for, but he had left out of fear of coping with the malicious words of others, he noticed that the fields full of greenery and flowers had almost become a lifeless rocky land, as had his soul.

Andrei realized what was going on and decided that he had to face his own fears and return to save that garden.

The road back was not an easy one, he had to face so many fears, but the hardest thing was to fight his own thoughts:

"What will the others think about me when I return to the village? That I was a coward and I ran away and will laugh at me again!";

"What will happen if I can't fix everything? The others will think about me losing my magic or being an imposter and that I don't deserve the name of the garden gnome";

"Only I am to blame", Andrei thought, "I never knew how to do things right. The others were right".

With these thoughts in mind, Andrei began to descend the mountain fearfully, with trembeling steps . He felt he was not going to succeed, and he very much wanted to go back to the mountain, where he felt comfortable and where he could not fail, and more than that, he had to deal with everybody. There in his loneliness and isolation he felt that no one could judge him and so he was protected. But he felt obliged to do something for those fields he had so lovingly cared for, and that motivated him to take another step. He felt his heart beat and he couldn't breathe anymore, his palms were sweating, and his thoughts did not give him peace "You will not succeed Andrei!", an inner voice said, but, the love for what he really loved, pushed him forward. And thus, struggling with his own thoughts and emotions, Andrei, step by step, finally reached the village from which he had left. In the village everyone was waiting for him with hope, they also apologized to him. Then Andrei guided them and together they managed to bring the plains back to life and make them look livelier and more colorful than ever.

All the gnomes thanked and named Andrei the gnome of magic, because this was one of the highest ranks in the world of gnomes.