by Nicholas Morris - © 2002-2008 All Rights Reserved

Once upon a time, in the middle of a large forest, a small seedling awoke.

For many days he lay there, gently humming to himself, content and aware and safe in the depths of the deep dark earth.

One morning, just as the dawn light warmed and filtered onto the earth above, the walls of this safe home began to crack. Crying out in alarm, he felt himself rising and twisting as his head fell away from the dirt and his body pushed tentatively away from the ground.

Suddenly he was experiencing light and the cool swish of the breeze as it tugged on his shoulder blades. Abandoned by the very heart and heat of the deep soil he had come to rely upon, he felt fearful, lost and alone.

Weeks passed and still the fear remained. He could not begin to imagine the purpose for his existence in this place. Where the darkness of the earth felt secure and safe, the coldness of the air was not inviting.

One day, he felt the beginning of a tingling sensation as leaves began to grow from his arms. "The pain, the pain" he cried out and the trees beside him said nothing yet swayed silently as though in understanding. The young sapling was torn in misery.

Still he grew. His arms expanded and he felt pressure as more and more leaves sprouted. Like tiny wings they exploded from beneath his skin, and though as time went by, he began to get used to the feeling, he was still frightened and felt very alone.

One evening long after the sun had disappeared, as he was silently crying to himself, he felt the flutter of tiny hands as they wrapped around the stalk of his body. "Be not afraid little one" a voice sighed almost as if it had come from the wind.

The little tree looked down. Just below his lowest stalk, a small girl stood with silken hair and pale blue eyes. Her skin, almost translucent seemed to glow and shiver.

The tree shuddered in fear. "Who are you?" he asked. "How is it that you speak to me when no one ever has? I thought perhaps that the other trees didn't see me, but you see me. Am I going mad? Is this my mind playing a terrible joke?" A great sob rose up in his stem. "Oh, I feel so alone."

"Be not afraid little one" the voice repeated. "For one day you will understand and laugh at the things you feel now. Be assured that you are not alone here. Every time you call out, every tree in this forest hears your voice. Do you not see them sway each time?"

The little girl came close to the tree and kissed it gently. "One day," she whispered, "it will all be clear. For now, watch every day happen. Watch your leaves grow. And watch your hands as they move further away from your body. Do this, and when it comes time in a year or so, your reason for being here will all make perfect sense."

Suddenly, the little girl was backing away, and the tree began to shake. "Please don't go", he said to her, his voice rising in panic. "You're all I have. I need you."

The girl smiled tenderly and reached out to the tree. "You need nothing, nor will you ever need a thing." She stretched out her arms and pointed all around her. "You have all of this. Be not afraid, for one day you will understand!"

In a flash, she was gone. The little sapling cried out in agony, and the other trees swayed silently in the evening darkness.

Many months passed by and the sapling became tall and strong. Day after day, he felt the sun on his back, blissful in the warmth on his shoulders, and the buzz of insects as they flitted past in their search for hidden treasures. He began to feel a curious sense of well being, and enjoyed the tingling of new leaves as they sprouted from his arms. He gasped in delight when the rains fell after a long hot summer day, cooling his body and bringing an invigorating sense of freedom. He enjoyed contentment with the feel of his lush green foliage, and the sound it made when the fresh northerly winds blew, swishing and sighing in unison with the other trees of the forest. His fear began to disappear, and each day brought with it a new sense of excitement.

Suddenly in the midst of all this joy, he sensed that something was wrong. Out in the forest there was a cooling of the air. His skin began to feel somehow tighter and thicker and one morning, he woke to feel an itching on the tips of his arms at the place where his hands reached out to the sun. He looked towards his hands and gasped.

Astonishment quickly turned to fear. "I'm on fire", he cried out, as the autumn season finally swept in from the north. "My leaves are turning red!" The trees beside him sighed and slowly swayed in understanding, for they too were changing colour.

Many days passed, and at small intervals the little tree cried out in despair, "won't anyone hear me? Won't anyone help me? My leaves are going brown. I think I am dying! Help me! Somebody, please talk to me!" But there was no answer to his call, and the little tree felt an overwhelming sense of loneliness and despair.

As the weeks passed and the winds grew stronger and the very air shivered with expectation, he awoke one morning to discover that around his body lay the very leaves that had comforted him during the summer months. Naked, he screamed out in anger and hopeless resignation.

"This is the very end. Why must I die this way? What was the point of all of this? My life has been so short. Just as I begin to enjoy it, it gets taken away from me. Oh how sad and terrible to live such a life as this!"

His anger dwelt with him for several days as the last of his leaves fell from his skin. But then he started questioning his short life and the anger slowly slipped away. What had he learned?

He looked back at his life and realised that the fear he had felt as a young sapling was no longer there. Seeing this, he understood that fear is only a temporary thing. He had left the darkness of the seed and entered into an experience that was, at first, far beyond his understanding. He began to realise that it was okay to be afraid, that life was constantly changing. He understood that when he suddenly started experiencing the pleasure and enjoyment of the sun and wind against his limbs, he in turn stopped feeling lonely and started being content.

"There must be something to this," he thought to himself. "Oh how sad that my life should end just as I am beginning to understand that it is okay to go through what I did." Even now, with the imminence of his death - with the changing colour and final dropping of his leaves, he felt acceptance over what his short life had shown him. "Goodbye to you all" he whispered to the trees around him, and then he was still.


_______________________

Music. A joyous song filled his ears.

A singing voice wove dreamily around and above him. He seemed to come awake in one moment as a bee buzzed lazily beyond his head. "I'm alive!" he thought. "I'm here. I'm alive. I'm not dead!" His mind raced with excitement as it reached a tiny glimmer of understanding.

Days passed and soon he was feeling the familiar tingling sensation as leaves sprouted once again along his spindly arms. This time however, he shivered in joy and sang with contentment. His body swayed easily with the spring winds and he was at peace.

More days and weeks flew by and still he experienced happiness. But then one morning, something changed. It was small at first, a tiny bubble that grew at this tip of his hand. "Perhaps it will soon be a leaf", he thought to himself as he waited and watched.

The leaf however did not appear and the bubble continued to grow. As each day arrived, there were suddenly more and more of them, sprouting across his body. He wailed in sorrow as every day brought them anew.

One morning as he awoke calm and at peace, he suddenly remembered the bubbles on his skin. In a flash he once again felt the familiar feeling of panic. But as he opened his eyes, the fear was suddenly replaced by shock. All over his body, little feathers of purple blossomed in the place of the bubbles. He stretched out his arms and shivered as the colour overwhelmed his senses. Bees drifted in and out of the flowers and he felt a wonderful sensation of wholeness, as if there was nothing but oneness within and without.

He sang with the joy of it all. And his song was echoed within the forest. The insects and the birds and the grass and the trees all sang in harmony with one another. And as he felt and heard their song, he glanced down towards his feet. There stood the little girl who had come to him so many months before. She smiled at him and her eyes twinkled like diamonds, and suddenly he remembered her words. "Watch every day as it happens", she had said. He thought of how confused he had felt when she told him that one day it would all be clear to him, that the reason for his very existence would soon make sense. He remembered the moment when he thought he had died and of how he had realised his mistake when he opened his eyes again that first spring morning.

Suddenly he was laughing, and in the infinitesimal beat of a moment he understood the sound of the other trees as they too laughed together with him. He understood their words of joy and love and peace, and as he laughed tears of happiness rolled down his face. And then tears of sadness as he remembered that for which he had suffered before. But then, even as this thought crossed his mind, he realised that suffering and growth were the natural way of things. That for one to live, one must learn. That to grow, one must experience all things and learn acceptance and understanding of what life brings.

Peace once again filled his heart, and his body sighed as the wind touched his face. And all within him became silent. And the forest was, together, at peace.

The End

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