Come on in and grab a seat. The rain might be turning to snow, and it might not be the beautiful long weekend we all want, but I was given a story last night, one I was told to share with everyone. And we've got some apples to munch on while we watch the smoke.
There were a couple who lived in the woods. They came from two different worlds so lived apart from those worlds. They ran happily through what they thought of as their home, oblivious to the rest of the world, happy in each other and lost in their joy of discovery.
One day they ran into some others who lived in the woods who were not very friendly. The young man fought with the strangers, first yelling, then wrestling. The young man pinned one of the strangers, and ran away with his mate. Since the fight was so grueling the young couple ran off deeper into the woods to avoid the strangers.
Unfortunately the young man felt bad for leaving, because the strangers seemed incredibly familiar. As the young couple ran away the young man started to remember his old life and the people who were there and how similar they were to his family from before his mate.
Another stranger, like both the young man and the strangers, yet different in his dress, found the young man and woman hiding in the woods and sternly scolded the young man, "How dare you run from your family. The are new to this place and wish to live like you but cannot yet. These are your relations and you can teach them to live here. You have forgotten who you are and how to act."
The young man was incredibly hurt by this and ran away from his mate and the strangely dressed man. He ran through the woods, trying to find the answer to his problems. He ran until he saw where the strangers lived. They were huddled in a tree, and the young man knew what to do.
He crawled into the roots where he started a fire at the base of the trunk, stoking it with his breath to get it hot enough to burn a hole through the middle of the tree. This way the smoke would be let out but heat would pass among the entire tree, keeping the people warm and with the glow of the fire within the tree.
While the young man did this, his mate tried to follow, and finally found her love. She crawled into the roots with him and noticed that the young man was changing, that the people living in the tree were changing and looked a lot like otters. She started to cry and crawled out again, encountering the strangely dressed man. "You took him away from me! I'm so different from his people they won't accept me! What should I do? Why would you do this to us!?"
The strangely dressed man tipped his cowboy hat and smiled, he then softly said, "You're right, they won't accept you. But they have accepted him. It's not their choice if you stay." He then walked away as the young woman crawled back into the roots of the tree.
2 comments:
I've heard this story before...but I don't know when or where I heard it. Are we dreaming the same things, perhaps?
The grandfathers spoke, and as a dutiful son I listened. The story is such that everyone should find it familiar.
After all, there are only so many stories that can be told.
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