The Little Cloud Who Wanted to Rain

High above a quiet green valley floated a very small cloud named Puff.

All around him drifted huge, dark storm clouds, rumbling with thunder and pouring down rain in great heavy sheets.

"I'm too small to do anything like that," Puff sighed, watching the big clouds work. "I'm just a little wisp of nothing."

One morning, Puff floated low over a small garden and noticed a tiny seed poking out of the dry soil, wilting in the hot sun.

"Please," whispered the seed. "I need just a little water. Not a storm. Just a little."

Puff looked around for a big storm cloud to help, but they had all rumbled off to water the mountains far away.

"I could try," Puff said quietly. "But I'm only little. I don't know if I have enough rain in me."

"Little is exactly what I need," said the seed.

Puff took a deep breath and let go - not a storm, not a downpour, just a soft, gentle sprinkle, drifting down like a whisper.

The tiny seed drank it in, every last drop, and by the next morning, a small green shoot had pushed up through the soil.

Puff floated back a few days later and could hardly believe his eyes - the little shoot had become a bright yellow flower, standing tall in the sun.

"You did that," said a passing breeze. "The big storms were busy with the mountains. It was your rain the little seed needed."

Puff smiled, floating a little higher than before. He wasn't the biggest cloud in the sky, and he never would be.

But he had learned something the big storm clouds never needed to learn - sometimes the smallest bit of help, given gently and at just the right moment, is exactly enough.