The Forest Man

“can we speak in flowers.
it will be easier for me to understand.” 
― Nayyirah Waheed, Salt

She wanted to go slow. To walk through the forest of him and learn the trees. To walk barefoot on the leafy duff, and to smell the sky between his lips. She wanted get lost in the trails, making new ones as she scampered around the tall grass of his mind. One day she came across a tall tree, hiding itself behind the clouds. She called out to the tall tree, "Why are you hiding?" The tree peeked down from the cloud and whispered, "I am afraid you will love me too much. I cannot give you what you need." 

The girl walked up to the thick trunk of the tree and kneeled at the roots. She placed her hands on the deep brown bark and let the tree's fears wash over her. "What do you think I need?" she asked the tree gently. The clouds slowly began to blow away, and the girl saw how beautiful the tree was. His bark was thick, from years of growing up to the sky. He carried joy and sadness in equal proportions between his long curvy branches. His arms were full of stories. Of friends, and love, and loss, and time. But the girl noticed something. 

This tree hadn't learned who he was yet. He had spent so much time giving himself away, that he wasn't sure what he meant for the world. "What do you think I need?" the girl asked again, running her eyes over the scars where the tree had given wood away to keep houses warm, and had stood standing through ferocious storms. He answered, "I don't know. But what you need I do not have to give." The girl laughed. And then she cried. The tree had forgotten the importance of his presence. That he was enough as he was. And that he did not need to give anything away. 

The girl asked if she could climb his branches. The tree, surprised by the intimacy, agreed. "Could this girl really just want to spend time with me?" the tree thought to himself. Soon the girl was swinging up in the highest branches where she could see for miles around. She sipped the sky and felt her smile all the way down to her toes as she learned the world from such a spectacular view. The tree softened. He realized he did not have to give himself away to receive love. That love existed when we allow others to experience us as we are. 

Each day, after hours meandering through the forest of this man, she returned to the tree. Slowly, the tree grew stronger, and the scars healed over, and they became beautiful friends. The girl reminded the tree of his beauty, and the tree gave her a new way of looking into the world. There was space where words had no meaning, and love was in their attention. She had all the time in the world, to go slow.