Tag Archives: sapling

The Storytellers

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Storytellers are very important to a culture that has no written language or any means whatsoever of recording their history or the information that has to be handed down from one generation to another. Which is why in every culture on earth, whether it be a human one like we live in, or a wet one like exists in the ocean or an animal one that lives on the land, or a much, much older one such as the one the earth and the stones and the trees have, has a storyteller. The information it takes to be a successful species has to be passed a long. That’s where storytellers come into play.

While walking by these two storytellers in the forest a few days ago I heard them explaining to this young sapling about the role she had to play as she grew up and took her rightful place in the forest. Everyone in Nature has their place and a job to do. The Earth of course stays firmly underfoot and it is the force that gives purpose to all the other things in life. The other elements such as the wind, sun, water, all have their parts to play but each individual has their responsibilities to perform as well.

And as in all cultures the young have questions about those things. They also have a lot of fear. Fear of the unknown. And a lot is unknown. The two storytellers above have been telling these stories for millennium. The one on the left with the long druid-like countenance is the most versed in the why of things, the broad overview of what our purpose is here. While the shorter, rounder one is an earth mother and she has all the practical facts of life that the younger ones need to know.

Procreation is always the single largest topic on the young ones minds and it is always the scariest to ask about. That’s why so many come to the storytellers to find out these things, you can’t ask your mother, you just can’t. How embarrassing would that be. And the other saplings are asking you about them so there’s no help there. No, the storytellers are the ones to come to.

I couldn’t hear much of the conversation as the storytellers speak in a very low voice, so low sometimes that we can’t hear it at all. The sound travels through the ground to the saplings roots like whale song through the ocean which is why there is a such a surprised look on her face. I did hear the words, gymnosperms, and male and female gametophytes and the release of large amounts of pollen, which is when the saplings branches flew up in embarrassment and her leaves flushed a pale shade of yellow.

It was at this point that I moved along as the conversation was getting to a very delicate stage and I did not want to add to the saplings awkward self-consciousness. I was just glad that the storytellers were there to help this generation of trees learn what they needed to know. Even in this day of information overload and unlimited knowledge storytellers are important.

 

To Watch A Crooked Tree

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Lots of things can be learned by watching a crooked tree. When we walk through the forest surrounded by the quiet, our footsteps barely audible against the damp soil, we slow down enough to actually look around, take in the multitude of trees standing tall and straight and think, this is the way a forest should be. All of the trees perfect specimens, their trunks straight, their leaves the perfect shade of green, their roots solidly planted in the earth.

This is what makes a forest a good forest. All the trees living their lives in perfect harmony because they are just like the other trees, both in thought and deed, they all fit together perfectly. Their stories are also the same. ” I’ve had a good life. As a sapling I was fortunate enough to be planted in a good grove, I’ve had all the water and sunlight I needed to grow strong and true. I have been sheltered from storm and winds by the others. I have never faced fire. I am a good tree.”

But then you see a crooked tree. A tree misshapen and gnarled and the recipient of much of the hardness that life has to offer. It has been bent and twisted by forces both in and out of its control and they have left their marks on the crooked tree. It is no longer straight, it shows the scars that hard times have placed on it. You stop and wonder, arrested by its appearance. There  are many questions. How is it that you are different from other trees. Are you a bad tree. Are you being punished. What has happened that you are a crooked tree. Tell me your story.

And the crooked tree does have a story and it is much different from the tall, straight tree’s story. “Many things have befallen me as I stand here before you. I too wished to be a straight, tall tree living in a perfect grove with my history all around me, proud of my standing amongst my friends and  family, the same as every other tree, but a stray breeze, nothing more than a simple zephyr, carried me to a different place, an inhospitable place for trees and I lodged between rocks and sand where there often wasn’t much water and the thought of bright clear sunlight was a distant dream. Misfortunes befell me and made long-lasting changes to my shape. A massive fallen tree dislodged in a storm fell upon me. It was years before it finally was removed but by then it had changed my shape.”

“I have had to fight for my water, my sunlight, my very survival and yet I am still here. I have been immersed in snow and frozen in cold so deep my roots began to lose their grip. Animals have tasted my leaves and branches and others, laughing at my shape have attempted to change it even more, but through it all I am here. I have produced leaves and needles, I have continuously pushed my crown towards the sky and I have succeeded for the most part. But as you can see it has left me changed. Yet through it all I am still a tree. And a tree is just a tree no matter its shape. There are many more stories that tell of events in my life that caused me to take on this shape but they are stories for another time.”

There is much to be learned from watching a crooked tree. Its shape tells part of its story but not all. One must spend more time listening with your eyes and feeling with your heart to learn what stories the tree has to tell. Some may find it worth it, but others may not. Whatever you hear or see and however you choose to accept it is up to you. Barring catastrophe the tree will still be there, misshapen or not.