The Little Valley of Trees

In the little valley, the trees were discussing recent weather developments.  It seems the spring rain had begun washing away their soil and some of the residents were in peril.

The Maples stated that, being trees and thus rooted, there wasn’t much any of them could do about it.  “That’s just the nature of Nature,” they said plainly, ”And it’s not our place to question such things.”

But the young Aspen Twins shook in uneasy disagreement, “Surely we can’t just leave it up to chance?  Isn’t there something we could do?”

Old Stumpy, who’d been around longer than most, and had no sympathy left for the taller youngsters, laughed at their naivety, “Oh sure! We can all just pull up our roots and move to higher ground!”

Just then the Great Oak, who lived way up atop the hill, rumbled down in a deep voice, “There is but one thing trees can do, and that is to pray.  That is why our branches raise to the sky, and that is what we must do.  Not all prayers are answered in the way we may hope, but it is our only hope.”

The other trees pondered this awhile, then conceded that it was better to pray than to do nothing.  And so, the wind carried away their leafy prayers.