Mother Nature's Lost Child

“I was a rabbit today, Mommy,” Chlora proudly announced, as she jumped into her mother’s arms for a welcome hug and presented her with a fresh picked bouquet of wildflowers.

“Oh, that is so sweet, my precious child,” Mother responded. While she twisted a crocus stem into her hair and thanked her daughter for the gift, she asked

“Did your big sisters help you with the transformation?”

“No,” replied Chlora. “I did it all by myself.”

Mother Nature’s youngest child was an inquisitive little girl who spent her days exploring the forest and meadows that she would one day care for. After her daily chores and lessons, she spent all her free time running with foxes and deer, playing with rabbits and cougars, and familiarizing herself with the flora and fauna of the land she called home.

The better part of Chlora's days were spent with her older siblings as they taught her about the many different species of plants and animals and the symbiotic relationships between them. In her forest home, she spent hours and hours each day soaking up all the information available to her from her siblings and from the forest itself.

Then she always took time, at the end of the day, to pick flowers for her mother.

“You morphed into a rabbit all by yourself?” Mother inquired.

When her daughter replied that indeed she had, Mother was proud and a little concerned. The ability to metamorphose was a gift all Mother Nature’s children were blessed with. Transforming into different species was an integral part of becoming one with nature, to learn the strengths, weaknesses and needs of all the lifeforms that her children would one day be tasked to protect and care for.

But Chlora was still so young, and her powers were not yet fully developed. She was just learning how to transform, so the process would be slower for her than it was with her older siblings. Mother insisted that Chlora only use her morphing ability when one of her siblings was present, else she be left vulnerable.

Being as inquisitive and adventurous as she was, Chlora loved to morph into animal form. Day after day she insisted her siblings stay out later with her so she could practice her newfound skill. Night after night, Mother made her promise she would never do it alone.

One day, while Chlora was playing hide-and-seek with her foxes, she noticed a majestic eagle fly into its nest high atop a tall spruce tree. Being in her human shape, Chlora considered morphing into animal or spirit form to get a closer look but remembered her mother’s daily warnings. She decided it was best to wait until the next day, when her siblings would be with her, and went back to playing with the foxes.

Her own curiosity proved to be too much for Chlora to ignore. She was determined to get a close up look at the mama and baby eagles in that nest. She wouldn’t disobey Mother, but she reminded herself that she was an excellent climber, even in human form.

Chlora grabbed onto the trunk of the spruce and shimmied up to the lowest branch. As she got higher and higher into the canopy, her excitement grew as her fear dissipated. Just as she was a mere few feet away from the nest, the mama eagle screeched, startling Chlora. She snagged her foot on a small branch and, in her attempt to free herself, fell 300 feet to the forest floor.

The sky darkened as Mother Nature wailed in agony. Monsoon rains flooded the earth as Father Sky unleashed an endless barrage of tears for his precious Chlora. Inconsolable in their grief, Mother and Father both were determined to punish earth for their loss, until it became apparent that She was grieving with them.

Wolves howled, and owls screeched. Lions roared and rabbits screamed. All the animals grieved. All the vegetation cried. The willow wept with the ash. The birch sobbed alongside the pines, the spruce and the maple. Even the mighty oak and the ironwood bowed their heads in sorrow.

Mother Nature’s tears fell so long and so hard that the colours began to bleed from the trees, as they grieved along with her. The trees’ own tears fell onto the once brown earth, creating a lush carpet of green throughout the land; a green as rich as the leaves of a sugar maple, a green as bright as the emerald eyes of the lost little girl they loved - their playmate, their friend.

And then, Mother nature smiled.

For the first time in a very long time, Mother Nature smiled when she looked upon the earth; for in that lush carpet of green, she could see the eyes of her daughter.

In the forest and in the meadow, on the plains and up the mountainside, a viridescent blanket filled the land everywhere she looked. Though her heart still ached for her sweet child, she found comfort and peace in the greening of the land, and she thanked the trees. Her child may be gone, but would never be forgotten, thanks to their empathy.

Now, every spring, when the rains come, the temperature rises and the darkness fades, the trees awaken from their winter slumber and prepare themselves for the change that’s about to come. They stretch their arms to the sky to absorb all that energy from the sun and all that moisture from the rain. The buds shed their protective scales and start the process of welcoming the new leaves and flowers that will soon be visible as the days get longer and the sun gets warmer.

As the new buds soak up the life-giving nutrients from the sun; the trees, through their branches and their roots, share their bounty with the ground that holds them.

A beautiful green cloak spreads throughout the land; a cloak as bright as an emerald, as rich as the leaves of a sugar maple, and as sparkling as the eyes of Mother Nature’s lost child, the precious little girl they called Chlora.