The Song of
the Trees
A Story for All Ages by
Aaron McEmrys
Far to the North, there is a lonely
island in the middle of a cold blue lake, and in the very middle of the island
there is a big stand of huge, ancient trees.
The island is called
Geese are not the brightest of
creatures and so they have always counted on the trees to tell them when it’s
time to move on. The trees of Goose
Island are very old and very wise; they know what time the sun will rise, when
winter is coming and even when bad men with guns are coming to shoot at the
geese.
Trees don’t talk, of course, but
they do sing, especially when the wind blows.
And so the trees of Goose Island sing to the geese, taking care of them
like a houseful of grandparents. And,
for many many years, the geese listened to the song
of the trees and were safe.
One year, however, everything
started to go wrong There was hardly
anywhere to sit down, the greedy geese were eating up all the food and, because
geese are very messy creatures – there was poop everywhere – gross!
One day a list of Rules appeared on
Goose Island where everybody could see it.
1.
No eating another goose’s food.
2.
No pooping on the sleeping rocks.
3.
No caffeine after sundown (little known fact: geese love Mountain Dew)
4.
No honking after sundown.
Nobody knew who had written the
list, but most of the geese thought they sounded pretty good.
And so it went for several
summers. The rules reminded the geese to
be considerate and to treat one another with respect. But as time went on, more and more rules kept
getting added to the list by geese who were grumpy
about this or that.
5.
No humming in your sleep.
6.
No splashing on Tuesdays.
7.
No talking back to older geese.
8.
All Grey Geese must be obeyed at all times.
9.
Any goose caught breaking the rule #8 will be kicked
off the island.
Before long, whenever a goose would
get mad about something they would sneak over to the list when all the other
geese were sleeping, and add yet another rule as a way of getting revenge on
the goose they were mad at:
10.
White geese with black spots named, Ringo, are not allowed to sleep on the sleeping rocks with
other geese. They must sleep in the
mud-puddle.
Pretty soon the geese were arguing
and fighting and accusing one another of rule-breaking all day long, and the
sound of angry honking echoed all over the lake.
“You broke rule #17b, you
loser! Now get off the island!”
“No way, you are currently in
violation of Rule 26c – you get off the island!”
And so it went. Their constant
bickering were driving the trees crazy. The old trees sang and sang and sang, but the
geese couldn’t hear anything over the sound of their own honking.
Meanwhile the weather was getting
colder. The trees tried to warn the geese that it was time for them to fly South, but to no avail.
The geese just kept making up stupider and stupider rules and dreaming
up new punishments.
Soon it was very cold, and the lake
started to freeze over. Too late the
geese realized that they had missed their chance – it was too late to fly South.
“Why didn’t you tell us it was time
to leave, you mean old trees?!” honked the angry geese. “You trees are in
violation of rule #879b!”
The trees stood by, silently – and
they remained silent until the wind blew so cold that the birds started to
freeze. Then, and only then, the Trees
sang.
“Foolish geese! In all your blaming and rule making and
punishing and endless honking you were unable to hear our song. And now you will freeze unless you listen
closely. We can feel the storm
coming. When it is time we will sing to
you. Then you must snuggle up together
as tightly as you can. Otherwise you
will die.”
And for the first time in a long
time, the geese were quiet. They
listened to the Trees. And when the
storm was about to crash down upon them with snow and great waves of freezing
rain, they heard the song of the Trees and they snuggled up to one another for
warmth and not a single goose froze to death - and they discovered that it is
very hard to hate or judge anyone who keeps you warm in a storm.
Three days later the storm finally
ended and the sun came out. The geese
had survived.
“The Sun will be warm for three
days, you lucky geese. Now is the time
to fly, fly hard and fly far and you will be safe.”
And the geese heard the Song of the
Trees, and flew away to the warm South, and the next year, when they returned
to Goose Island their list of rules was gone, but there, scratched onto a big
rock next to a great tree root was a sign.
It said:
1.
Be Kind
2.
Take care of one another.
3.
Listen
©2010 Aaron McEmrys,