I normally don’t venture into the woods after it’s rained. 

But I needed some air, to shake this feeling of impending doom. A festering wound, not allowed to close up. Bills mounting up, I had been desperately scraping for additional clients to cushion the blow.

As I sought solace among the lush greens and the  scent of the rain on the ground, I looked up at what appeared to be a sequoia tree. “Must be nice,” I muttered to the tree, more out of spite than anything. “Solid, rooted, never having to move or change.”

The bark rippled – had I just imagined that? Then a voice, deep, measured, rustling like old leaves, echoed from within the tree: “No move or change? Stillness is but an illusion.”

I jerked back, heart pounding. “A talking tree? Did I lose it more completely than I thought?”

“Many years have weathered my skin,” the tree continued, ignoring my reaction.

“Seen fires hotter than a man’s rage, droughts longer than his memory. Yet still, I reach for the sky.”

A shimmering light appeared beside me, folding itself into the shape of an angel. His wings sparkling like diamonds.

“He speaks truth,” the angel said. “Change is the sap that flows through all life. Where there is no change, there is no life. “

I stared in mute amazement for a second. But before I knew it, I blurted out  “Easy for you both to say! Life doesn’t suck for you, being up here with your deep roots and fancy wings “

“Roots?” the sequoia echoed. “Mine were severed long ago, as a sapling. The ground that sprouted me was depleted by your kind,  but I did not rest until I could reach deeper and grow bigger”

The angel smiled. “Here’s the lesson for you, child: You carry your past like a sack of stones. What if they actually are seeds, that you can plant for new growth?”

There was something poetic about his words and the way he spoke them. He didn’t sound insulted by my retort. I turned sheepish.

“So you mean I can become different?”

“Always,” the sequoia whispered. “I am still a sequoia, but each ring within my trunk tells a new story. That is the gift of time, if you choose to use it wisely.”

I looked to the angel, expecting more wisdom. He looked brighter and brighter, the heat radiating from him more palpable. The glare made me squint.

…And then I jolted awake. Sunlight slanted through my shabby apartment window. The scent of damp earth lingered, and the tree’s whisper of wisdom echoed strangely in my ears. Just a dream? Maybe.

But sometimes, life lessons are plain to see only with eyes shut.