The Oak Tree

The man sat with a thoughtful expression on his face. He was about 5’ 5”, smaller than average for his village. He was perched upon a fence bordering a large grassy meadow with several ancient oak trees scattered throughout the rolling hills. He gazed at the largest and oldest of the oaks, it seemed odd to him, out of place in some way. Its bark was older in some places than others. Some limbs grew out at odd angles. He pondered why this might be. Had some ancient battle been waged on this very ground? Had the touches of war struck this old and noble tree in times past? Or had some cruel hearted youth, now grown, tormented its regal soul? The man could speculate, but odds are he would never know the full truth, never know what really happened to the old oak tree, what terrible things had come to pass beneath its all encompassing limbs, what wonderful things had graced its presence. The man would never know the tree’s story, but still, he sat pondering its life, wondering if it felt love, felt true pain. As he thought about its life, he began to think of his own life, his own hardships, the love that he had once felt, the loss that he still bore deep within his chest. He sat there, lost within his own mind, trapped within his past. He is but a shell of a man now, his body remains but his soul has left him. He is trapped within a past he cannot escape. The man rose, his eyes staring out at nothing, and started to walk down the narrow lane that wound through the meadow. It was a beautiful day, the type of weather you always want for a picnic but always never do. The meadow was breathtaking thing time of day. All this was lost on the man, his mind was elsewhere. In another place, another time. His heart was in fierce battle with his mind, he was a torn man, emotion at odds with reason. A single tear flowed down his cheek. His tattered heart is winning the struggle. He is succumbing to the deep depression that’s welling deep within him. The single tear gave way to many, the man fell to his knees, his body racked with deep emotional pain. He let out a single cry into the empty meadow. The cry was laced with the pain that he had kept within him for far too long. He was a man ruled by his pain now, but as he wept on that country lane, he felt release, he felt closure, and he felt freedom coming back to him. After some time, he was able to rise again, rise as a new man, a full man. The man started walking again, walk into the distance, walk to his new life.