Once there was a tree with a terrible case of sympathy pains. When a nearby elm was cut down it howled and screamed with the ferocity the elm itself could no longer manage. When a cat used the tree’s mother as a scratching post, the little tree felt scratches up and down its trunk for weeks.
One day someone walking by happened to mention, “Wow, I can’t believe it’s been 30 years since Mount Saint Helens erupted. Have you seen the trees up there? Just decimated, man, absolutely wiped out, grey, all leaning one direction… phew. It’s quite a sight.”
The little tree was terrified. It started to shake just thinking of that arboreal carnage. Its branches wobbled like jello and all its leaves fell to the ground. It grew pale, sickened by the destruction it had just heard about, and the once brown skin of the tree faded to a ghostly grey. A small wind blew and the tree, fearing the worst, imagining clouds of ash barreling past it at unparalleled speeds, bent to the wind and could not muster the strength to get up.
That is the story of the little tree that looks like it went through hell.
Despite being so dead, this tree is so very alive.
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