Hi,
I'm Shannon and grateful you're joining me for this story today.
I'd like to talk a little bit about it and then we'll move into the story of Little Big Tree.
In a world where the bigness of things is often the things we notice first,
Like the big vehicles we might drive,
Or the big successes that we might accomplish,
Sometimes the little things get displaced or ignored.
This is a story,
Fictional of course,
That I wrote about a very small tree in a very big forest who knows some important hidden truth.
As you'll see in the story,
Sometimes it's the small,
Incremental,
Almost unnoticeable steps on our journey that lead to big shifts,
And these big shifts can uplift the whole world.
I hope you enjoy this story of Little Big Tree,
A little tree with a very big name.
One sunny day,
In a very large forest,
Of extremely big trees,
Little Tree was born.
All the trees around her saw how cute and small she was.
That's how she got her nickname,
Little Tree.
Her real name,
Gifted from her mother tree,
Was Talia Dawn Redwood Ascending.
Of course,
A tree as little as she couldn't carry a name as big as that,
It was just easier to call her Little Tree.
When Little Tree did grow,
She was still shorter than the shortest newer trees that lived in her neck of the woods.
Little Tree,
Although small,
Knew many wild and wonderful things.
She knew that when the wind changed direction,
It meant a storm was coming.
She knew that when the soil tasted like salt,
Rain would soon arrive.
She knew that when the mushrooms grew big and bright on the valley floor,
The trees would be able to communicate more easily with one another.
Each time Little Tree tried to explain all these wise and wonderful things to her friends and family,
The older trees would just pat her on the head and say,
You're so cute,
Little Tree.
Little Tree didn't want to be cute,
She wanted to be heard.
Over time,
Little Tree sat still in the place where she was born.
She listened to the wind,
Tasted the soil,
And felt the mushrooms grow.
Mostly,
She kept it to herself and stopped using her words.
As time passed,
The trees around Little Tree grew and grew,
Foot by foot.
Little Tree grew,
Inch by inch.
In the grove in which she was born,
In the years that passed,
The other trees rose above her.
It was quiet down in the shadows of the other tall trees.
It remained like this for many years.
Little Tree continued to gather all the wisdom and stories from the forest around her.
One year,
As winter approached,
Little Tree prepared herself for the long sleep.
Her pine needles turned a beautiful golden amber color,
Like morning dawn colors.
This is how part of her real name came to be.
Little Tree had no reason to believe that this winter would be any different from all the other winters before.
She was excited to sleep because she looked forward to springtime.
It was always a wondrous experience and getting to hear the sounds of the forest once more.
Little Tree shook out her branches,
Looked overhead,
And said goodnight to her family and friends.
As she drifted off to sleep,
She placed one secret hope in her heart and looked forward to seeing the sun in the springtime.
During this time in winter's white drift,
Little Tree snored and slept soundly.
Winter guarded her branches,
Her trunk,
And her roots.
While Little Tree slept,
She was wrapped in the bright moonlit night.
What she didn't know was that her world was about to change.
Wintertime's cold breath blew through the forest in what seemed like the blink of an eye.
Each day,
The sun gleamed on the horizon earlier and earlier.
Little Tree's branches grew and bloomed and filled with new beautiful green needles.
With each passing morning and each early sunrise,
The birds sang earlier,
Tweeting happy hello to the sun.
Hearing the voices of the birds nestled in her branches,
Little Tree began to wiggle her roots and stir her leaves,
Awakening her from her long winter sleep.
When she awoke,
Little Tree looked around to see that her world had indeed changed.
She,
In fact,
Was all alone.
At least,
That's how it seemed to her.
Little Tree could no longer see the trunk of her mom,
Or the branches of her dad,
Or the bark of her friend's trunks.
Little Tree thought that everyone had left her,
And she began to weep.
She cried and cried not for one,
Not for two,
But for three straight days.
Her tears fell through her branches.
On each of these three days,
A different bird sat upon her branch and sang to her.
But Little Tree was too sad to hear their songs.
First,
Sparrow,
Bright and cheery,
Called.
Sparrow tweeted loudly.
Her song rose up into the air and surrounded Little Tree.
Little Tree couldn't hear any sound except her own crying.
Sparrow left.
Night fell,
And the next day Owl came to sit in Little Tree's canopy.
Owl hooted and called,
Low and rumbling.
But once again,
Little Tree heard not one sound.
She sobbed until she cried herself to sleep.
Owl left.
Night came,
And the next morning,
Meadowlark sat in Little Tree's branches.
Meadowlark sang a different song.
Little Big Tree,
My friend in the sky,
Why oh why do you cry?
Now this song caught Little Tree's attention,
And she sniffled her reply.
Meadowlark,
I think you have the wrong tree.
I am just Little Tree.
Meadowlark sang again.
Yes,
Yes,
I know.
I know just who you are.
Little Big Tree,
The tallest of the tall,
No longer the smallest of the small.
Little Tree,
In this moment,
Thought that perhaps Meadowlark must have been sleeping too long during the long winter's nap.
My name's Little Tree.
You have the wrong name.
Please,
Please leave me be.
Meadowlark,
Not easily dissuaded,
Sang yet again.
Yes,
You were Little Tree,
That part is quite true.
But over winter time,
It appears that you grew.
Have you not looked down?
Little Tree thought to herself,
Why would I look down when I have always looked up?
That's when Little Tree decided to look down.
That's when she saw the most strange and curious sight.
She stood fifty feet above all the other trees.
Now she saw only the tops of their heads instead of the bottom of their trunks.
You've been given a new name,
Meadowlark said,
Little Big Tree,
Because of how much you've grown.
But how,
Asked Little Big Tree,
As she was now called.
You sprouted up while you slept.
You see,
You're not alone.
You just have a new job now,
Sang Meadowlark.
She landed atop Little Big Tree's branches.
Little Big Tree looked side to side at her branches that had also grown wide,
Like the arc of an opened umbrella.
Her branches extended over the top of the other trees.
Stand tall,
Little Big Tree,
Said Meadowlark.
You are here to protect your friends and family.
So tall you've grown,
And so wide your branches span.
It's your job now to shelter those who live beneath you.
At this,
Little Big Tree's tears stopped completely.
Her trunk straightened up tall.
Although she now lived in the canopy of the clear blue sky,
Little Big Tree found that she had many new friends.
The birds that traveled to and fro,
The clouds that shuffled past,
The sunlight on her leaves,
The wind through her branches,
And the squirrels who were courageous enough to venture that high up from the valley down below.
And the other trees began to call her by her full name,
Talia Dawn Redwood Ascending.
She was tall enough now to carry the full length of her given name,
And from that day forward,
She helped other trees just like herself grow into their own full and beautiful selves.
The author and spiritual teacher,
Marianne Williamson,
Said this,
Your playing small does not serve the world.
There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you.
We are all meant to shine,
As children do.
It's not just in some of us,
It's in everyone,
And as we let our own light shine,
We unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.
Thank you so much for joining me for this story of Little Big Tree,
And may your light shine brightly in the world.
Have a beautiful day.
Namaste.
