The Tree Story

Do y'all know Daryl, at on the m104?  She's a fantastic photographer with an eye for the overlooked and unusual bits of our lives, turning ordinary objects into works of art.   Check out her blog here:  http://onthem104.blogspot.com/.  You won't be disappointed.

Daryl has graciously allowed me the use of her photo of this oddly shaped tree in New York City's Riverside Park, which instantly inspired in me this little story...

Once upon a time there lived in a bit of greenery in a bustling city two young trees.  But they were rooted firmly into the ground and could do nothing except admire each other across the expanse of lawn.

Several years passed, and the trees developed strong sturdy branches and many leaves.  They were lovely trees, but quite lonely. 

One day, the first tree, deeply in love with the second, decided to reach out.  It began pulling itself out of the ground, exposing its roots, and bending its longest branch toward the other tree.  But some of the roots began revolting, insisting the tree would die if it continued pulling. The roots argued and argued, and then the tree began arguing within itself, as the strong branch pulled with such a mighty force that the trunk began slowly dividing.

"Look what you are doing to us!" bemoaned one side of the tree to the other.  "We are splitting, and our roots are almost completely out of the ground - if we continue pulling, we will surely uproot ourself!"

But the other side was making progress, and the second tree was beginning to reach out also...

The strong branch kept reaching out.  "If you are afraid, stay here or pull the other way, but I must keep going."  And so the trunk of the tree continued to divide as one branch pulled hard in one direction to survive and the other pulled hard in the other direction to reach its love.

After many years of struggle, the strong branches of the two trees finally touched.  Nuzzling, they began wrapping themselves around each other, small branches of one becoming entwined with small branches of the other, the leaves of one indistinguishable from the other.

The branch of the first tree that had pulled to survive watched the love dance of the two branches and became so despondent, it bent toward the ground, resting heavily upon the earth.  As it bent, it pulled away from the old trunk even more, creating a small hole in the heart of the tree, and waited for the time when it would die.

But the other branch, bent on love rather than survival, lived on happily for many, many years in a bit of greenery in a bustling city.