Third Blog Post - Growth (From the Past)

-Please note that I started writing this blog before the New Years, and before I had my blog page prepared. Since then I have redesigned this "project", and will be starting it in earnest on January 10th, 2011-

Light…

The first thing I can remember is light, a faint grey forming out of darkness. It cracked through the surface and made textures there I had never known. It brought warmth down into my little hole, and it felt so good, so right, that I stretched my arms out as high as I could to catch all of it, pushing aside the texture to feel the warmth against my skin.

Water trickled at my feet, soaking them and softening my hard skin, and I reached my toes out as far as they could go to let the wetness flow around. It felt wonderful, almost as wonderful as the warmth above.

I stood up and stretched as far as I could, and further and further still. It felt wonderful, so wonderful, that I grew more arms – four, eight, twelve, sixteen – to catch as much light as I could. I grew tall, taller than people, taller than all the animals, taller than all the buildings and taller than anything around me, as high as I could to catch all the warmth, soaking my feet to keep cool while warming my whole body with the radiant sun.

And I grew. I grew as tall and as high as I could until the warmth could barely reach my feet. By then, I had grown so tall that I had forgotten my feet, the splendor of my arms far more important to catching the warmth…yet with my arms stretched so wide and my body so tall, it was difficult to stay balanced. Harsh winds blew across my body, stealing my warmth and threatening to knock me off my feet. But my feet were dug firmly into the ground, and my skin was strong, so as to keep my warmth, so even as I chilled in the winter and suffered harsh storms, I was always strong.

Small creatures fed upon my feet. Bit by bit they tore away at my flesh, and I barely noticed for my love for the sun was so great. Yet as they tore it away, my hold upon the earth weakened, and my body grew frail. The winds grew strong as I grew weak, and before long, one strong wind pulled at my body hard enough to tear my feet apart. With my strength sapped, it took only one more wind to rend my body in two, and kill me in an instant.

My arms now rest in the ground; and from them spreads the warmth that I have gathered. The small animals take my warmth and soil. From that warmth, new life will grow.

I was a tall and mighty tree. From my growth, a thousand lives become possible.