Hanging from one of Mother’s tallest branches I could see great distances in all directions, all manner of trees and mountains on every side. I asked Mother, Will I ever grow to be like you, and She explained all things to me. When She finished, she asked me, My child, are you ready, I will let you go to pursue your destiny if you so desire. I thought for a moment and agreed. Then Mother started singing, calling upon the Wind to blow upon us. The Wind responded with His own song, sweeping across the forest with great strength and beauty. When the song reached me, I began to fall, and as I fell I contemplated all the things Mother told me and I imagined how beautiful I would grow up to be, and how many children I would have, and how I would explain to them all things as Mother explained to me. But I hit the ground with great violence and lost consciousness, and when I awoke I no longer remembered Mother’s words.
In the fall I had lost my cap, I was cold and felt helpless. The soil was moist and uncomfortable, and although many of my sisters were around me, I felt alone. But soon I learned I was not alone, there were enemies on the prowl, lurking to see how they could take my life and those of my sisters. Soon giant furry creatures with fearsome teeth and powerful hands were cracking the shells of my sisters and devouring them, while others were simply carried away. I was lost, confused and frightened. Then one of the giants took me and started running. Along the way I could see many of my sisters cracked, half eaten, abandoned to perish and rot. Then the creature stopped, looked around, and buried me in a hole, which it covered with dirt.
I did not stay buried for long. Soon another, different creature, smaller but no less frightening, was digging me up. It had seen me being buried and waited until the other creature left so it could steal me. I was carried in its mouth, travelling at great speed, until the creature stopped suddenly. We had reached a river whose waters were very strong and very quick. The creature contemplated for a while how to get across and eventually took the first step into a stone, then a jump into another, then another, until we were almost at the other side. One last stone remained until we reached the riverbank but no sooner had the creature stepped on this last stone, a large and fearsome bird came swooping down and attacked my carrier. Having now to fight for its own life the creature dropped me from its mouth and the last I saw it was being carried in the air by the large and fearsome bird, fighting for its life. I had no time to contemplate the irony, as I was being carried both forward and downward by the quick and violent waters. I wept as I began to drown, thinking of how I was saved from the jaws of a monster only to die submerged in this moving grave. But somehow the bitterness I felt started to be washed away by the violent waters, and I started to accept my fate. I was ready to give the final assent to my demise when I was thrust against a large stone and flew in the air onto the riverbank. Just like the river, the bank was on a slope and so my voyage was not over. I rolled downhill, gaining speed, hitting many rocks and many plants, until eventually the slope started to turn into a valley, and the rolling slowly came to an end at the edge of a wood.
The wood was old and quiet. It was Autumn so the leaves in many of the trees were turning yellow, then red, then brown. Then the Wind would carry them in its song and some fell on me, protecting me from the cold. It was cozy there and I fell asleep. As I slept, slowly and sweetly, my body was taken by the earth. I dreamed of a million little creatures eating up the leaves and turning them into the living soil that now was all around me. I woke up as it started to rain. I thought that I would drown there and my life would come to an end, but the more it rained, and the more submerged in both water and earth, the more the bitterness left me, until none was left and I accepted the ground as my final resting place. But in that exact moment a sharp pain started in the deepest recesses of my being, a place so deep that I never knew before. The pain grew, and as it grew, so sweetness overcame me, until finally the shell of my innocence was cracked, and a root came out and kissed the earth beneath me. And then I remembered Mother’s words.
She had said to me, This is the great mystery, I was once a little acorn just like you, you are an imperfect oak and I am a perfect acorn, so yes, my child, you can grow and come to be as tall and as beautiful as me, that is your destiny, How can I do this, I asked, and she said, You will have to go through many trials and probations, this is the condition for all beauty, all strength and all life, we oaks are born with hard shells and bitter flesh, they protect us from decay and from our enemies, but we must allow this bitterness to be washed away and our shells to be cracked, if we are to set our first root and be born into a new and better life, and become what we were always meant to be, it is hard, and it is painful, but the pain turns to sweetness, and when it does the earth will accept our dwelling. Once I had no roots, and then only one root and very small, but it made its way into the soil and it multiplied, and the more roots I had below the more branches and leaves I had above, now I have many roots and they reach deep into the earth, where the water of life is found, and now I have many branches and many leaves, and they are all raised towards the sky, your Father, in prayer. All this is done through love. It is Love that carries the water upward through my roots, trunk and branches, and it is Love that causes my breath to sing a prayer to the your Father through my leaves, and it is your Father that sends His love in the form of light and heat, and which returns the water of life to us, so we may grow ever more strong and ever more beautiful. I was once a little acorn, just like you and all your sisters, and you have to learn to be an oak just as all other oaks have done before you since the beginning. Now, it is up to you to accept the quest, or to remain with me until you are no longer bitter, but also never to be sweet and never to grow tall and beautiful. You may dry on the branch, and when you fall, you will be dead. But if you accept your destiny, you will have the chance to be born into more abundant life.
And so I said yes. And now I give you, my daughters, the same wisdom that my Mother gave to me, and I ask you the same question, are you ready.
This one made me think a little of the "Hymn of the Pearl", except a lot better.
lovely and sublime