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Tree

This story is about an old tree standing alone in a graveyard that is awaiting its inevitable fate of being cut down. The tree feels helpless, lonely, and in pain as it wonders why its existence is considered so worthless that it must be sacrificed to make room for human burial plots. As the tree stands shivering on a cold night, it thinks this may be its last day, but sees two nests in its branches that give it hope. The tree looks longingly at the lights of a nearby city and wonders what makes human lives more worthy and privileged even in death than the lives of trees.

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63 views2 pages

Tree

This story is about an old tree standing alone in a graveyard that is awaiting its inevitable fate of being cut down. The tree feels helpless, lonely, and in pain as it wonders why its existence is considered so worthless that it must be sacrificed to make room for human burial plots. As the tree stands shivering on a cold night, it thinks this may be its last day, but sees two nests in its branches that give it hope. The tree looks longingly at the lights of a nearby city and wonders what makes human lives more worthy and privileged even in death than the lives of trees.

Uploaded by

6609503
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Awakening

A Story of a Tree
By Abhishek Patel, December 13, 2008
Outside the inflating boundaries of a bustling man-made
wonderland, in a quiet corner of a graveyard there stands an old
tree – a tree so old that he has all but forgotten his own age
and have lost all purpose in life – yes “he” not “it.” Like his
ancestors, family and friends before him, he is awaiting a long
anticipated day when he too will be separated from his mother,
his land, and will be sacrificed to fulfill incessant desires of
mankind. His heart is burning with rage, with the feeling of
helplessness, and with the pain of loneliness. There is no one to
whom he can demand justice from, no one who can rescue him, and
no one who can console him or have sympathy for him and his
agony. He always wondered whether the existence of his kind was
so worthless that he has to give it up in order to accommodate a
dead soul from a distant wonderland? He has gone through these
strings of thoughts a thousand times before, but never had he
found an answer that would convince him of otherwise. Now once
again his old heart is driving him into labyrinth of past
experiences and future anticipations. His roots are slowly but
surely losing their strength to hold on to his mother’s breast,
his immense trunk is deeply scarred suggesting his lifelong
struggle to survive, his branches are num, and his leaves are
pale as he stands nervously shivering in the cold breeze of a
clear moonlit night. Like every night, he thinks this is the end
of his long, miserable, and unappreciated life, but then he
remembers the two cozy nests among his old and dangling branches
– nests that bring a promise of new life. His thought process
falters; a tear runs down his trunk – a tear that bears the
strength to shake the heaven if there had been one, a tear that
have both, unbound compassion and rage in it. The only thing he
is able to utter is – “Please God! Not now. Not today.”

He stood looking at the night lights of the distant


wonderland that infiltrated the surrounding peace and serenity
with strange noises and activities of its creators and their
creations. A strong desire arose in his heart as always to visit
it, not out of curiosity or revenge, but to discover what made
its inhabitants more worthy of life and more privileged when dead
than his own kind. He was taught only three things in life – to
be content, to be self-sufficient, and to be benevolent. Like
every other tree of his kind, he had devoted his life in practice
of this doctrine and was determined to do so until the end of it.
For these had allowed his ancestors to live a long, healthy,
productive, peaceful, and most importantly a worthy life. But
those distant lights were making him more skeptical everyday of
this doctrine. Although he could not doubt its credibility, it
did not convince him either.

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