You could take a long time watching trees and wouldn't be wasting time. You’re watching them grow. I am a tree watcher. I like to see them sprout from the ground, I like to see their leaves emerge in the spring and to slowly change into the beautiful canvas colors of the fall.
I love trees. They seem to have silent stories that you can only hear if you are patient enough to listen. On one not so special day I heard a story that I never forgot. It was about a tree with deep roots. This tree had stood through many storms, had seen many wars, and shaded many families. But this tree was not just a tree. She was a person that had once been a tree.
Everyone always thought of me as strange. When I would play outside for hours watching the clouds and trees they figured I didn't have much going on inside my mind. But in my mind those clouds and trees were more than just imagery that passed by. As I grew up that way of thinking never left me. I was always full of stories of why a tree was bending side-ways instead of growing straight up, you know, because he was bowing to the Tree King as He passed by, and his back gave out, so he was never able to stand straight again. This was strange to people, but I thought it was perfectly normal, they were the strange ones. I would often wonder, why do they work so hard? Why are they never outside? Could they not see the trees? Did they not know about the stories they told?
The woman that had once been a tree told me her story once. And when she finally died I knew she would once again become a tree. We were all once trees. That’s what she said. When a baby is born he is born of a tree that has given its seed to the ground, but instead of the seed falling to the ground the Tree King places that seed into a person. That seed becomes a baby and lives its life as a human (this explains why we are so enchanted with trees), then when the human grows old and they die their body is put back into the ground so they can finally become the tree they were meant to be.
All seeds come from one tree that the Tree King guards. He planted the First tree and from that tree He made them all.
When she told me this story I knew it must be true because it just seemed so logical.
Her story began in a small forest outside of a small town. Her parents had already been chosen, and she was already planted, they were just waiting on her arrival. She was born into a small farm home, on land that held many Apple trees. I was worried when she told me this, after all, if all trees where from tree seeds then what about those Apple trees?? She told me that the fruit of the trees were given as gifts to the people to remind them of where they come from, and that the fruit helped the people remember just how much they were loved by the Tree King. Every time I eat an apple I always remember this.
She told me after she had grown up life as a human was much harder than she liked. Instead of being allowed to play in the trees she had loved so dearly she was forced to work inside buildings cleaning houses and cooking. It was a hard life for her, but she knew that life would not last forever, so she stayed strong remembering that when she once again was in the ground she would finally become what she was always meant to be. An Apple tree.
She told me bits and pieces of what it was like working in homes that were not her own. She did get married and had a baby of her own, but they both became trees again sooner than she was able. It broke her heart to know that she would have to stay a person for much longer than they.
She remembered the day they were both sown in the ground. She remembers how sad she was that she would not be able to join them. That was the day she first met the Tree King. Not many people can say they've met Him. Mostly because He only visits those that belong to Him. There are those that He plants that choose to not become trees afterward, instead they become rocks in the ground, never getting to feel the air flow through their leaves or branches, and never getting to see the world from so high in the air. What a sad fate. But a fate, nonetheless. My tree friend told me that all people get to choose their fate, and whether they choose rock or tree it’s a choice. But The Tree King does not visit nor tend to the rocks. He only tends the trees. He was there with her that day. He held her hand as she watched her husband and son being sown into the ground.
She told me she even got to speak to Him.
“Why did they get to go so soon and I have to wait?” She had asked.
“Because you are meant for more days, my dear tree friend.” He replied.
It was sad for her, she couldn't truly understand it, but because there was nothing she could do about it she accepted the days ahead of her and continued on. The years following this had been hard ones for her. She struggled knowing her days had to continue. She longed for the days when she would finally be free to be a tree once more and feel the air in her leaves for the first time. She said she had remarried, but the man whom she married did not belong to the Tree King and treated her very badly. She stayed with him for a short time, telling him about the Tree King and the wonders of being a tree, but he refused to believe it. He was destined to be a rock. So she packed her things and left him to his rock fate. All this time that had passed had left her very angry. Why did she have to suffer such painful things? Couldn’t the Tree King step in and make her life better? But she said it wouldn't have mattered, she didn't long for better days as a person. She longed for her life afterward as a tree.
Many years had passed. She told her story of the day she would once again become a tree to anyone who would listen, but not many people did.
She found herself in an old folk’s home at the end of a long hallway at the end of a very long life. That’s when I met her. As we would walk she would tell me her stories and, me being a future tree and all, I listened. I had never realized that I could be a tree until I met her. Her stories were like a shovel filling in the holes that had been dug in my mind. Things were making sense again to me. I told her that she had helped me. Growing up had been hard on me. I couldn't spend as much time with the trees and it made me sad.
She understood this because she too missed watching the trees.
I remember the last day she was alive as a person. She and I had shared the same birthday, and I had been looking forward to seeing another year go by with her, only as she grew weaker I knew I’d have to meet our birthday alone. I sat with her, holding her frail hand, telling her that it was okay. I didn't want to keep her from becoming a tree, because I knew how much she longed for it. I told her to close her eyes and think of the wind rustling in her branches. She fell asleep, and I left.
That night I got the call that she had passed. I was so very happy for her, she would finally join her husband and her son and become what she had been waiting so long to become. An Apple tree.
At her sowing I watched as they lowered her body into the ground to be planted. And that’s when I met The Tree King. He stood by and held my hand. I had questions for Him too.
“Why did she have to wait so long?” I asked.
And He said, “Because I wanted her to tell you about me. Otherwise, we would never have met.”
“Will there be those I need to tell about you?” I asked.
He smiled and replied, “There will always be those that need to be told. So tell them the story, and they will see me when you are planted, and I will tell them the same.”
So here I am, telling the story. For those who choose to believe it there is a Tree King waiting to meet you. And when you are finally planted I will be waiting with my tree friend and her family, and all those who have chosen to be a tree.
Next time you are outside watch a tree. It may just have a story to tell you.
No comments:
Post a Comment