In an old, abandoned quarry, where no one had worked for a long time, there lived a small crystal. His name was Quartz. The quarry was his home, but Quartz was not happy there. He felt ordinary and somewhat empty. While the moss on the rocks had a rich green color and the flowers at the edge of the quarry blazed with purple and yellow, he was merely transparent.
"Oh," he would often sigh as he watched butterflies with blue wings dancing in the air. "If only I too had such a beautiful color. Any color at all. Just so I wouldn't be so... invisible."
He observed the world through his smooth, clear walls and felt like a window that everyone just looked through, but no one noticed him.
One day, after a brief summer shower, something strange happened. The clouds parted and the sun peeked out from behind them. A single, bold and bright sunbeam crept into the quiet quarry and fell directly on Quartz.
Quartz felt a gentle tingling and warmth he had never experienced before. He trembled with surprise. "What is happening?" he whispered curiously.
He looked ahead at the gray and dusty wall of the opposite rock. And there, right where he had always looked at ordinary stone, suddenly appeared a beautiful, radiant arc. It wasn't just any arc. It was full of colors!
Quartz couldn't believe his eyes. Living beings seemed to emerge from the colorful arc.
"Hello!" waved cheerful Red, who glowed like the ripest wild strawberry. "What a ride through you that was!"
Right next to her giggled playful Orange, who resembled a sweet orange. "We almost crashed!" she laughed and bounced in place.
"Good day," said peaceful Yellow, bright as a sunflower at noon. "Thank you for showing us the way."
Quartz was completely confused. "W-who are you? And where did you come from?" he stammered. He had never seen anything like this before.
"We are the Colors!" exclaimed energetic Green, fresh as spring grass. "And you have just freed us."
"Freed?" Quartz wondered. "But... how? I'm just a transparent crystal. I can't do anything."
Then thoughtful Blue, who had the color of a clear sky, spoke up. "Quite the opposite," she said gently. "We all live together, hidden in the white sunlight. Usually no one sees us, because we hold tightly together. But you... you are special."
"Me?" Quartz looked around himself. "But I don't have any color."
"And that is your greatest strength!" added mysterious Violet, who seemed wise and noble. "Imagine that a sunbeam is like a box full of colored pencils. While it's closed, you only see a white box. But you, thanks to your straight walls and clarity, work like a magic key. When the beam passes through you, you unlock the box. And we, all the colors, can run out for a moment and show ourselves to the world."
Quartz listened with bated breath. So he wasn't empty? He didn't hide nothingness within himself, but a secret?
"So... the fact that I'm transparent... isn't a flaw?" he asked timidly.
All the colors laughed at once with a cheerful, tinkling laughter.
"A flaw? That's your gift!" exclaimed Red. "Without you, we couldn't be here now playing and dancing on the wall!"
Quartz looked at the colorful arc that glowed on the rock thanks to him. He looked at himself and for the first time didn't see an ordinary, colorless stone. He saw within himself a gateway to beauty. He understood that he didn't need to have one color to be important. He could reveal them all.
From that day on, Quartz never felt sad or ordinary again. Whenever the sun shone after rain, he joyfully waited for the beam that would transform him into a magician. He looked forward to welcoming his six colorful friends again and, together with them, making the old, gray quarry the most colorful place in the world, if only for a moment.
And perhaps, when you next look through a glass of water with sunlight shining through it, or when you see a rainbow in the sky, you'll remember the little crystal. Remember that even the greatest beauties are sometimes hidden in what at first glance seems quite ordinary.