The Story of The Motionless Tree



There was a beautiful and tall tree who seemed very proud of itself. There were lots of trees around but none of them were as beautiful or colorful as this one. It had long branches were some animals lived on. It had birds living on the top of the tree with a beautiful view of the whole forest.
And as amazing this tree looked it had one problem, it seemed like it felt lonely. It was home for a variety of animals yet they never talked to it. It seemed like it saw the other trees and wanted to talk to them but none of them could reply. Although the forest was filled with beautiful trees they just couldn’t talk back.
It felt like the reason it only existed was exactly that…to exist.
Animals didn’t need for it to feel great because they only needed it to have long branches to make a nest. Or to be tall for their homes to be safe from danger.
Still, the tree because it’s used to being admired and to bring smiles to people just by looking at it, it seemed like it thought it could overcome any problems it faced. But it had never faced any troubles like this one. How do you overcome loneliness when there is no physical way for it to communicate?
The tree tried to swing at the other trees when there was a windy day. But the animals living on the tree fled after the long branches swung so hard that some of the nests fell off the branches. The tree tried to move closer to the other trees but its roots were too strong deepened into the ground. Saddened because all the animals left and no communication efforts with the other trees were successful the tree became brown and definitely not as beautiful as it once looked.
Until one day people came and started to cut down the other trees. It did what it could, it swung side to side trying to scare the people from cutting down the other trees, but the people didn’t seem to care. The next day it found itself completely alone. There weren’t any trees close by, there weren’t any animals close by. There even weren’t any people to cut down the tree and end its misery. The tree became genuinely alone.


After some years the tree was still there, alone, but it wasn’t the grandiose colorful tall tree it once was. It looked dull and if there was ever a skinny-ill looking tree this was it. One day a man came with her daughter and told her the story of why this tree was his favorite tree in the world. He told her that one day when he was working as a lumberjack, he and his colleagues came to cut down all of them, this tree swung so hard that it seemed like it was alive and trying to communicate with them, it even seemed like it wanted them to stop cutting the other trees. Because it was extremely beautiful the way its branches swung and all of the lumberjacks felt the same when looking at it, they decided they would pardon its life, if one can say that. He said he hadn’t come here since that time and didn’t expect for the tree to look like if it was about to die, but he really wanted his daughter to see the tree the way it was before so he decided to come with her daughter every day and play a bit of music with his guitar. The place was still beautiful and he could practice playing guitar as well as teaching her daughter to play guitar whilst sitting beneath the tree. And so they did. They came every day and sat beneath the tree for an hour or two while they humored themselves by playing guitar. The tree started to appear as mighty as before and it started to show all the beautiful colors it once had. And one day the most unexpected thing happened…it started to blossom and beautiful flowers grew off its branches as well as deep red cherries grew and fell off the tree. After a few weeks the seeds from the cherries that were on the ground somehow started to grow little green plants and these became taller and taller and started to look more like the tree itself. After a few years they became as tall and beautiful as the original tree and more animals started to come and live on the trees. It looked like paradise.
Some time after that people would come and tell stories about this tree. They would say the tree is a thousand years old, others would say it’s been in a comma for hundreds of years. They say this because the tree never swings even if its’s windy the tree stands still, motionless, almost like a frozen effect. But it’s given life to other trees and it has become home for other animals. And it became part of their favorite place for many people who come here just to play some music.

I guess the tree understood that sometimes you can’t communicate with people close to you, even if it swings from side to side. It understood that you may have people in your life that fills it with beautiful music everyday and yet you can’t even say thank you. It understood that talking and communicating are two different things, and I guess it understood that it was only a tree and that sometimes when facing a problem even when you think you can overcome any problem there’s the fact that you are still a tree and you can’t change your nature just because you wanted, even if you swung hard like no other tree has done it before. But I think it understood that sometimes the only thing you can do is to stay still and just change your perspective. Because you can’t control everything or you must not try to control everything. But what it could do was to say thank you with its mightiness and with its delicious cherries or at least that’s what we think because the tree never swings, never moves its leaves or branches, they stay still as if they were photographed. But the tree has never been more alive because it understands that feeling lonely and being alone are two different things even if you never hear others say a word. I love this tree and I know it loves me because it keeps still everyday I come and it will keep that way for many years until it can’t produce more fruit or beautiful flowers and it can finally truly stay still.
Still…but never alone.