THE cyclone has just passed and as I looked down, I saw the broken branch, “Oh that’s so sad!” I shouted, “It must have happened with winds over 120 kms an hour!” “The winds were terrible!” agreed the broken branch, “and that’s when I made my decision!”
“What decision?” I asked intrigued. “To break away from the tree and lie down here in safety!” “Are you crazy?” I asked.
“Of course, we’re not!” said the leaves of the broken branch, “Look how nice it is to loll away here on the ground instead of facing that terrible wind! It nearly stole all my makeup!”
“I nearly lost all my sheen!” said another leaf, “and that’s when we urged the branch to break away and we could keep our beauty intact!” “But you’re dead!” I said.
“That’s what I told them!” said the tree wearily, “I told them to hold on, not to break away, however tough it got, that I would get them through the storm!”
“You always say that!” said the broken branch, “but do you know what it is standing in the face of a wind at that high speed?” “I know what it is to give you strength whatever the speed of the wind and however bad the rain!” “You have no idea how good it is down here!” said the branch and I distinctly heard the leaves giggle, and then heard them gasp, “Hey, I’m finding it hard to breathe! Hey branch send us some water, will you?”
“I can’t!” wheezed the branch!” “Why?” asked the leaves, gasping.
“I have no roots! I am not attached to the tree anymore!” I watched the branch, slowly choke and the leaves too, and felt sad as I turned to the tree, “I guess that’s one of them who found the good life down there was actually death!” I said, and the tree nodded miserably. I looked at the other branches on the tree.
They all looked a little leaner, but certainly more tougher after what they’d just been through, “It was a tough night Bob!” one of the branches whispered to me, “We actually thought we wouldn’t make it, in fact at one point I also wanted to do what he down there did, I wanted to just give up, but…” “But I told them to hold onto me and I would see them through the storm,” said the tree.
I nodded, and felt a new strength coming into me, as I did what the branches were doing, and I held onto the true Vine of life, “Hold me tight!” I whispered, “and with your strength I will weather any storm!” We watched the broken branch and leaves slowly turn ashen as they slipped away..!
