Lost to the World

There once was a man and his wife. They lived in a forest dressed in every shade of green, their land was fertile and provided plenty of food, they had time simply to watch the river run her races to the sea. All this they had; beauty, prosperity and time but they longed for a child.

One day a wise man came through the forest and met the wife. She invited the old man to her home and fed him. When he was full and rested he offered her a gift to thank her for her kindness. By this time her husband had returned from the fields and they both confessed to the wise man they could not conceive and wished for a child.

The man removed a small bit of cloth from his pocket and turned to the woman. He placed a small rough seed in her hand. Let this soak in a glass of milk for a single night he told her. In the morning drink the milk and plant the seed outside of your door. If you do these things, a child you shall bare. The man and his wife were overjoyed and took the seed. As the old man gathered his things to leave he left the couple with a warning. Drink the milk and plant the seed and a child you shall bare but you will lose him to the world. Then he was off, disappearing into the arms of the darkening wood.

That night the man and his wife placed the seed in a tall glass of milk. The next morning the man took the seed and planted it outside of their door while his wife drank the milk down.

Shortly thereafter his wife began to grow and shortly after that a child was born, a bright, endearing boy. The joy this child brought to their world cannot be weighed by human means. Suddenly the sun was brighter and the trees grew taller, the shade cooler. This child, this clever child, his every smile his every coo shot a dagger of love through their hearts, a wound they happily took each and every day.

So the boy was raised with love until the age of twelve when he came to feel that love was not enough, nor working the same fields with his father, reading the same books to his mother, even wandering the forests, a generally delightful way to pass the time, became dull and uninspiring and the boy grew sullen.

One day the wise man returned to the farm in the forest and was heartily welcomed. The boy was proudly presented to the man who made it all happen. Over dinner the old man spoke of the sights he had seen over the years, the people, the colors, the places, oh the things to know and to see and to do. These stories seemed to awaken something in the boy something that had been forgotten, curiosity. That night after the old man had departed, after his mother and his father were asleep, the boy left his home in the forest. He was off to know and to see and to do.

The boy would wander the world for many years watching and studying. He spoke many languages and read many books. Now a young man he traveled. He learned to create great renderings of beauty; paintings and sculpture. He learned from masters and so he became a master too. Even with all that he had seen and done it all again grew dull until one day he met a woman who would become his bride and he furthered his studies still mastering the moods and whims of the creature that was his wife. They lived in great happiness, examining the rise and fall of each other’s breath, memorizing the beat and flutter of the other’s heart, decoding the many means of communication they each possessed until one day his bride became old and died. Once again he felt that sullen pull to drift away from all that was familiar.

The man, who was now in his eightieth year, he wandered for weeks and months until he found himself in a forest filled with every shade of green. A river raced steadily by and there before him was a tree and in that tree there was a shadow of a face he thought he knew. The tree reached down and cradled the old man in its bows until he was asleep. As Morning made herself known there was peace and joy in the forest and a murmur of welcome home.

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