To the coal miners:

    Just like Cole, you may work where it is dark,

    but the work you do helps the whole world shine.

    Thank you for being a light to us all.

Deep beneath the ground, in a quiet, shadowy place,

lived a small piece of coal named Cole.

Cole wasn’t shiny.

He wasn’t clear.

He didn’t sparkle when the lantern light passed by.

But oh, how he wished he did.

“I want to sparkle too,” Cole whispered to himself.

In Cole’s mind, diamonds were magnificent — bright, dazzling, celebrated.

He would have given anything to be one of them.

One day, a coal miner’s voice rang through the dark tunnel.

“Look, boys! I found a diamond!”

The miners cheered.

Cole’s heart sank.

“Why does no one ever shout like that when they see coal?” he wondered.

That was the day Cole decided he would become a diamond.

He traveled as far as a little piece of coal could travel,

until he reached Mother Earth — for she knows everything.

“Hello, Cole, my dear,” she said warmly. “What troubles you?”

“I want to become a diamond,” Cole replied bravely.

“A diamond?” Mother Earth asked gently. “Oh, Cole… coal cannot become a diamond.”

Cole blinked. “It can’t? I thought coal turns into diamonds. Then how are diamonds made?”

Mother Earth lifted him carefully in her hands.

“Diamonds form deep in the mantle of the Earth,” she explained,

“Under tremendous heat and crushing pressure — far greater than coal ever receives.”