Lost
-By Secret Sue I was walking down a path in the forest. This was my dream. It was paved with wooden planks. The greenery didn’t encroach on its tidy glory, and I never looked away from it. It wound through the dark green sea of undergrowth, undisturbed. This was my dream. I walked and walked through the forest, using this path as my guide. Eventually, I risked the occasional glance around the forest through my peripheral vision. But every time I did so, I felt myself change. This was my dream. At first, I thought of the forest as scary; a never-ending and savage green, ready to swallow me up. Then, as time went on, I realized I viewed it as different - exciting. It was when I turned to look at it directly that I saw it for what it truly was. This was my dream. Dangerous, but exciting; wild, but beautiful... Free, but just out of reach. I stopped my trek down the path. This was my dream. I examined my surroundings some more, seeing the beauty of it, and disregarding its dangers. A vine slowly crept onto the path. I stepped off of my pristine path, walking farther and farther into the wild. This was my dream. The further I walked away from it, the more the shrubbery began to swallow it up. Soon enough, I was afraid of turning back and returning back to the location where the over-run path once was. Because, for all that it was perfect to me before, I suddenly realized, it was never really there. This was my dream. It was a dream from which I never did awaken. |
The Penny Willow
-Christine Maiolo If you look out from your bedroom window, across the patio and before the pond, you will spy an old willow tree swaying in the breeze. And on yonder tree you might also spy a strange branch, all that remains to show of a strange and tragic tale. Many years ago, when the willow was yet a young tree beginning to become mighty, it spotted a penny upon the ground beside it. So simple and small a treasure it might seem to us, the penny was a precious gift to the willow tree. After that fateful day it was consumed by, and devoted to a single purpose; to reach down with its branches and claim its sole possession. This goal was its life, it brought meaning to the willow's solitary existence. The willow tree grew taller as the years went by, as trees often do. Up and up it went, while a single branch stretched downward, closer to its aim. All around it life began to change. Buildings were built up and expanded. Students studied in its shade while others rushed about. Geese came and went. Volleyball was played. But one cruel day, a Grebel student spotted the very penny the willow cherished. Seeing no reason not to, the boy promptly took it for himself, wholly ignorant of how he had so robbed the willow tree of its great purpose. The sad Penny Willow had nothing left to aim for. With a deep sigh of its branches, it began to grow upward again. And it continued to do so for more years even than it had first grown down. This might have been the end of our story had not something else occurred quite recently. The tale of the Penny Willow was not yet done. For in April of last year, a dark and powerful storm came to the grounds of Conrad Grebel University College. The wind shook the bitter branches of our tragic hero. Upon that night the willow awaked to one final chance to reach the soil where its dear penny had once lain. And with a great crack, its branches descended, the final act of the mighty Penny Willow. So if you look out from your bedroom window, across the patio and before the pond, remember the willow, remember its story. |