Unseen

I am friends with the maple tree in my front yard

I go outside and hug her, tight around her trunk. I feel her support me.

I lay down on the ground and her root system supports my body beneath me.

I look up at her branches above me, her leaves shining bright green in the sun, and marvel at how tall her branches reach.

I reach my arms up to greet them.

I place my palms to the Earth and imagine all of the parts of my tree friend I cannot see. I know there is a vast network of life hidden beneath the dirt

I marvel at the thought.

I’m like the tree, I think. Then I stop myself.

I look at her, strong and unmoving - magnificent. I think of how long I've spent feeling uprooted - a drift at sea with no paddle.

"How can I dare compare myself to her?" I ask myself.

The answer came, as if a voice from within me.

"Although we weren’t here to see it, the maple was not always grounded. No - she was once a seed."

"She grew connected to the tree she came from her - her mother, if you want to think of it that way."

"One day the connection severed and she fell, plummeting from the sky. She found herself in a dark place. She didn't know where she was."

"Then - water, soil, air, time. She emerged through the soil because all she knew is that she is meant for the light."

"I understand," I thought, "I am like the tree."

In my darkest times, I found what grounded me - the light that had always been there waiting for me to emerge.

Just as I was not around to see my tree friend when she was a seed, maybe I just haven't gotten to see who I have yet to become.

I wonder if my tree friend new what was destined for her when she was in the ground.