Theme: Destruction Law
The backyard tree
Marcelo lived in a house that had a spacious backyard,
where he liked to play.
There was a very large tree in the
backyard. Marcelo usually climbs on it and sits at the
top. From there, he watched closely the birds and their
nests, saw other animals, admired the beauty of the
leaves, and felt the coolness of the shadow of the great
treetop.
|
He loved taking books and
comics to read upstairs and he could also see
the entire backyard and the street beyond the
wall. |
When it was time to go down, Marcelo
would hang from a lower branch and swing himself before
jumping and landing on his feet in the grass.
Since he was little Marcelo played on
the tree. He had moved into that house with his family
when he was still a baby. And the tree was already
there.
One day, as he always did, Marcelo
hung on the branch to climb down from the tree, but when
he forced himself to start swinging, suddenly the branch
broke, and Marcelo fell.
Fortunately, he didn't get hurt. But
he got scared. And he was sad to see the branch
overturned.
Marcelo told his parents what had
happened and asked:
– Please, Daddy, can you fix the
branch soon? The best way to get down from the tree is
by it.
His father explained that he would
need to call a tree specialist to see what had happened
to it.
Marcelo didn't care. He thought he
would just have to wait a few days for everything to
settle down. But that's not exactly what happened.
The specialist came and said that the
branch broke because the tree was damaged by a disease
and had several rotten branches. On his recommendation,
the branches of the tree had to be cut. They couldn't
resist a stronger wind and could fall on top of the
house or cause an accident and even hurt Marcelo.
The day they cut down the tree, the
boy even cried. He understood the need for them to do
this, but he couldn't help the sadness of not having his
tree anymore.
With the tree cut down, Marcelo
almost never went to the backyard. The days went by and
he had to find other things to do. He then started
playing with his neighbors on the street or at their
house. He also sometimes called a friend to come to his
house.
Marcelo, who used to spend a lot of
time alone, changed his way of being. He started to
enjoy living with the boys and made many friends.
It was nice and peaceful to be up in
the tree reading or observing nature. But Marcelo found
that spending time with friends was also good. He
learned new games and had a lot of laughs with them. And
he had so much fun that it was often nighttime and he
didn't want to stop playing.
One day, after doing his homework,
Marcelo got up from the table and went to the backyard
to walk a little. He remembered the tree stump and went
to see it. It was then that he got a big surprise. Two
green branches had sprouted from the sides of the cut
stump. The tree had not died.
Marcelo was very happy. He was facing
the renewal of life. One phase had ended, but another
was emerging.
He stood there thinking for a few
minutes. He loved his tree, but if it were still there,
he wouldn't have had the other opportunities he
happened to have.
Moved, he remembered how good it was
to climb the tree and felt gratitude for her. But he
understood that now he and the tree were in a new phase,
renewed. He realized that this was a good thing and the
sadness he still felt from the cut branches was gone.
Marcelo went into the house and went
to tell his mother about the tree sprouts.
- Good, son. She will grow up healthy
now - said the mother.
- Yes! - Marcelo agreed, smiling.
His heart was in peace.
Translation:
Larissa Martine - larissa_am@hotmail.com
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