Fables: Everlasting Life and the Glassflower Maple
The spirit of the Riverbend Preserve is inspired by literature and legend. In this series, we’ll share tales woven from the magic of the forest, field, and river. I hope you enjoy this fable of a tree who discovers his place in eternity.
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Everlasting Life and the Glassflower Maple
Once, a traveler wandered through these woods. She walked in silence and she listened, hearing the morning song of birds in summer and the rush of the river just beyond the trees. She felt the cool, sweet air flow through the forest.
Then she heard the sound of a heavy, round, tear drop striking the ground as from a great height. She followed the sound to a gnarled old Maple tree beside a well-worn trail, and her heart could feel his deep and abiding sadness.
She placed her hand on his rough bark.
“You who are so tall and strong that your tear fell as if it fell from the clouds, why do you weep?”
The tree breathed in the air of the old forest.
“Young traveler, here have I stood for more summers and winters than you could count. I fall asleep to the rush of the river and wake to birdsong at every sunrise. I have boundless love for the water and the sky, the green leaves of my brothers and sisters, the tiny beetles and the black soil around my roots…
“But those roots are wearing thin and my body has begun to hollow. I have learned that I shall die, but I do not wish it. And so I weep.”
The traveler smiled.
“Be comforted, for I am no ordinary walker in these woods. My magic is deep and subtle, and I too love the forest. I carry an enchanted flower, sealed in glass. Accept it as my gift. Meditate on the flower, and you shall know the sweetness of life everlasting."
The old tree rejoiced in his heart and accepted the flower, letting his bark slowly close around the pebble of glass.
“How can I repay you?” he asked the traveler.
“The gift was given freely; you owe me nothing. But you must reflect. You must ponder the nature of the glass flower for the magic to unfold. One day I shall return and we will talk again.”
Summers and winters came and went.
At first, the tree believed that he felt the warmth of youth alive again in his wooden bones. But every spring he brought forth fewer green leaves, and in the autumn he could feel his fibers begin to creak and groan. Then could he feel the weight his many years, so when the traveler returned she heard once more drops on the forest floor.
“Well met!” She called. “How fare thee, old friend?”
“Old, indeed!” he cried bitterly. “And older still with each season. I am a simple soul. Have you deceived me?”
The traveler placed her hand again upon the old tree’s rough skin with great love.
“You have not reflected, but do not despair; I will help you unfold the magic.
“Picture the glass flower, now deep inside your wooden flesh, once more. You see that it is forever young, for the body sealed in glass does not age…but it also does not grow, does not learn, does not change. It does not live.
“Would you be encased so? Would you watch the world turn around you only to be frozen in a single moment for all time?
“Life is eternal, but we are not.
The words sunk into the old tree’s heart and the traveler continued.
“Your love for the forest will endure, and the life you live will not truly end. It will pass slowly from you to the ground and to the birds and the beetles and the many children of the forest. When you close your eyes at last, your body will give its life to countless others, and theirs to others, always, until the end of time.
“This, dear soul, is the sweetness of life everlasting.”
The tree breathed the air of the forest deeply, and he was content.
“Will you have the flower back again?”
The traveler smiled.
“No indeed, for now you will give the flower back its own life; soon your strong fibers will crack the glass, and release it once more to live, to grow, to breathe, and then one day to pass it’s gift to others.”
They parted as friends, glad of heart.
And so did the cool, sweet air flow through this forest where travelers wander, where seasons come and go, and life goes on forever.
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