The Greatest of Trees

I ran. I slithered through the shadowed streets of town. Here and there the night’s darkness was softened by glowing lamps atop ancient posts, statuesque reminders of a land where Lion is god, and children are kings.

I ran. I huffed and puffed, but no houses collapsed, they simply slipped behind me, receding into the past. When my heart could pound no more, I stopped. I stood on Varona and saw such a sweeping spectacle. So, I smiled. I smiled at the glowing San Diego cityscape before me and said, “Thanks.”

As I stood, smiling, satisfied it occurred to me that there once was a great tree that grew from the ground where the city now lies. Many years ago, when the ground was fresh and fantastically fertile, the tree grew to such a height that was, at the time, immeasurable. As astounding as the tree, was the stature of the men who tended it. Upon it’s many green boughs and branches they hung and strung brilliant bulbs and bobbles of varied color and size.  The noble tree was dressed in such magnificence that its beauty lit the night. But in a tremendously terrible tragedy, the tree one day fell. Some thought it was the weight of its divine décor that decided its destruction. Others said the tree, knowing it had reached the limit of its beauty, was so satisfied with its stint on earth that it ended itself. No matter the cause, the tree fell, and when it fell, so did its many lights and other terrific trappings. In time, the ground devoured the tree, but even after the earth had eaten the great tree, the decorations lingered in the land. The lights still shone brightly with beautiful brilliance, and around this splayed array of a spectacular spectrum, a new people grew. As the people grew they built their city around the lights, and they forgot their past, and they knew not of the great tree. Eons have passed and nothing remains of the tree, but at night the city glows, and the lights that shine are the same that once hung in the lofty limbs of that great tree.

As quickly as this revelation came it ended, and I was once more standing, smiling, satisfied on Varona.

Together

After a day of laughter and sun, food and friends, the laughter continued with shifting firelight dancing on our faces.  We were content. Sitting around the fire with s’mores slowly sinking into the seemingly bottomless pits of our stomachs, we were content. With warm company, friends new and old, smiling and soaking in the light that radiated from one another, we were happy. With delicate and entrancing melodies filtering through the crisp night air and kindly caressing our ears, we were overjoyed. With the warmth of our fellowship being greater than that of the false fire we sat around, we were loved, and we loved. As we parted we looked to the fluid shapes of clever clouds hanging overhead and we smiled at their mysterious beauty. And we left, apart but together in this world, in this life.