My life began unlike many others. It began seventy feet in the air. Many think that life seventy feet in the air with no ground would be scary, especially as a child, especially with no floor. At first I clung to my father for dear life and he held on to me. As I grew the winds blew my father around but he always protected me. It was an incredible childhood, good neighbors and good friends. My father continued to grow up to eighty feet. I was blessed to have such a stunning example to follow. It’s not often that folks reach their full potential.
Then the time came for me to let go of my fathers support. He came to me and said, “Son, you have grown strong and have the potential to do amazing things. I want you to know that life up here at seventy feet is hard to achieve. I, also, want you to know that life on the ground is seductive, but if you can break out of that lifestyle the sky is your limit.” Terrified of what lie below, I looked down as I always had, but this time with more trepidation. I looked up at my father one more time. He smiled at me and said, “Be great son. I love you.” Then I let go.
It seems like I fell forever. I waited to hit a point where I could start to achieve a life like my fathers, but it felt like I was falling for an eternity. Finally, I softly landed on the ground. Right away I was very surprised. There was movement everywhere, bodies rustling up against one another, everyone was in a hurry to do something, except grow towards the sky. I rolled down among the movement to reach the ground I needed. Finally, I had found it. All was right with the world. I could finally grow tall and strong like my father. I dug deep and prepared for my ascension the following season.
I had buried deep and survived the cold. When the season for my work finally arrived I was rejected. Where was the light? Had I dug so deep amongst the rustling bodies that the light had been snuffed out? I had failed already. My spirits plummeted as I searched for an answer. I began to ask around. What had I done wrong? When I finally came across an old body who was like myself I asked him: “Where is the light? I need it to grow” The old body replied, “Boy, the Needles and the Leaves don’t want you to succeed. For if you succeeded you would force them to change. For they would have to move against their will if you grew tall and wide. They hold back those with large potential lest they achieve it. Look at the trees above you, they put the ground beings to shame. The ground beings don’t want more beings who put them to shame. I have often wondered if they do it naturally or consciously but I fear we will never know.” Then I realized what my father had meant. All around me the body’s sitting on the ground were rushing to do nothing. Many of the beings on the ground could not grow to the awesome heights those around them could. Life on the ground meant that they didn’t have grow if nobody else did. That is the way they liked it. My father was right, this was seductive. I could live and not grow while living from the works of the tall ones, like my father above. At this moment I realized that I would have to fight to grow to the level I wanted.
I went out and assembled the resources I needed for months; storing them away and living on little. Finally, I came to a time I could profit from my stores. I started to grow as quickly as I could. Knowing that others would come to see what I was doing and compete with me. Quickly, I became 5 feet tall and others began to try to take my soil and light, I defended my territory and took some more. I was now 15 feet tall and those on the ground no longer had any power over me. I had defeated them. However, as I grew I became painfully aware. There were no longer as many big trees as there were in my father’s time, when I was a child. They were disappearing. The old ones were dying and young ones were not rising to replace them. On one hand it was good for me because I didn’t have to compete against many and could rise quickly, but on the other hand, the forest, as a whole, began to suffer. Our ecosystem was starting to fail.
I didn’t have to wonder long where the big beings had gone. The seductive lifestyle on the ground made sure that trees like me, or my father, were a relic of a bygone era. I looked down and sighed at the squabbling masses of beings who refused to grow for themselves. They milled around the wreckage of the old and fallen. Their vines wrapping up the smaller trees bringing them to their knees. Their depth and mass smothering the bold and determined.
This is how life went in the forest for many years. The masses growing and growing. Until one day lightning struck the ground. I was so scared as the ground lit up in flames, animals scattering everywhere and dodging into the rivers and streams. Fire flew through the weak masses who had gathered on the ground becoming tinder for the flame. I watched as the fire, running uphill, consumed everything in it’s path. Many of my tall friends remaining were consumed by the flame. In it’s wake there were the ashes of my friends and all the grasses, needles, leaves, brush, and fallen trees that had once held us back. I sat there lonely for some time looking at the devastation and then marveled at how the rain washed the area clean.
6 months later
Life has started to emerge every where! It is more colorful than ever before. It is stronger and greener and taller. Everything about the new forest is what my father had instilled in me all those years ago. The ground life no longer existed but I remember it. For a moment I was jealous of the young trees growing quickly today. They had no ground cover to grow through, no terrible lifestyles to shake off, fewer bad influences to distract them from what mattered. Then I remember the fight it took me to get through the ground masses. I know that I learned the discipline to get through the hard times and that is something these kids won’t know. When the ground masses return will the young be ready? The ground masses will come back. They always do. That is the cycle of the forest.
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