Though still young and unknowing, the sapling began to reach. Closer to the ground than to the sky, it extended its arms in expectation. One can only imagine what the young tree thought to obtain. It budded in spring and by the time summer arrived, leaves were as full as they come on a baby tree, providing shade to the ants and caterpillars. The sun prevailed in the thick woods and bathed the young dreamer and it grew taller and it grew more arms, some reaching out, others reaching up.

Like all believers conflict arise casting doubt and shadows. A parasite grew onto the blossoming tree, and like the tree, it grew arms too. But its arms reached down and grabbed the earth, and as it descended, it sought to take the dreaming tree with it. For a while, the parasite appeared to prevail. The arms of the tree didn’t seem strong enough to resist the limbs of the parasite since it outnumbered the tree’s 10:1.

But the dream lived on in the determined tree. Since the parasite was determined to go down, the tree made up its mind to go up, and so all the arms that were reaching out turned its attention to the sun, the same sun that had always parted the forest to visit it. And the more the parasite tried to pull it down, the stronger the tree became as it reached up. And it grew and grew, and the parasite relented. It became content to memorialize the time it had almost overtaken the dreaming tree. But it didn’t dare to look up to see when the triumphant tree scraped the sky and kissed the sun.

©D.L. Lunsford

#DREAMON