drrieux

You were growing impatient. Every few steps you would catch your foot on something and nearly fall, but I held you and kept you safe. You complained that it was taking too long and wanted to remove the blindfold. I kept saying, "just a little longer dear," and did my best to watch where your feet were landing. The sun had begun to set and was drawing closer and closer to the horizon. Time was running short and I was deathly afraid that we'd miss the moment. So much planning and effort had gone into this that I did not want to postpone it again. Finally, there it was. The end of our journey. I told you to stop and wait just one more minute and then it would be ready. Everything would fall into place. As you stood there I could tell that your mind was racing, running over all the possible scenarios that could be taking place. A breeze came up and you could here the swaying of branches and the stirring of leaves. "Alright, you can take it off now." You let out a sigh of relief as you began to remove blindfold from your face. Then you saw it standing in front of you. A massive tree standing there with light pouring through it's leaves and between the branches as the sun was now directly behind it. The tree was illuminated in gold and you could see that there were two trunks twisted together in an embrace.

"It's beautiful," is all you could say and I could sense that you didn't yet understand the full significance of it all.

"It's two trees you know. It looks like just one with two trunks, but it was actually two different seeds. I know because I planted it. When I was a kid I came out here and planted this seed I had found. Every day I would come out here and water it. It finally started to sprout, but it seemed so dismal, like it had no reason to grow tall. My mother told me that trees can take a long time to grow, so i shouldn't be disappointed. This wasn't satisfying at all to me, there was something else going on here, I didn't know what though so all I could do was keep watering it daily and watching the progress. One day when I was out here, a bird flew in and landed right near where I was sitting, in his beak he had another seed similar to the one I had found before. He dropped it right next to the small sprout that was rising out of the ground and sat there looking at me as if telling me to do something. So I planted this other seed and began watering it alongside the other. You know what happened? Everything changed, the two trees began to grow together quickly. They shot up out of the ground, wrapping around each other, their roots growing together fusing into one symbiotic organism. The two trees were romance. They were two lovers, forever together in embrace. Each one completely dependent on the other. Do you see? The two trees are us."

At that moment I took your hands in mine and I looked into your eyes. They were filled with tears, but you had a smile across your face. The words no longer needed to be said. You knew exactly what I was thinking and I knew exactly what your answer was. We just held each other close and then carved the words into the tree, so that all would know. This was us.