What I have learned from stories
I learned from trees
Stories are the glue
Stories are the joy
Stories are the clay
Stories are how we stay here
Stay alive.
What I have learned from stories
I learned from trees
Stories of the foundation of the tree roots of every human before
You can’t see them in their entirety, but you know they are there
The trees tell each other stories to stay alive
Mycelium
To share everything, they need
The water
The nutrients
The resources
The trees of the past and today and the future
The history of every moment before.
Echoing in the wood
the dirt
up through the trunk
to the branches
of the green on top waving
If you pay attention, you will hear the leaves say hello before you see them.
What I have learned from stories is
they connect us to each other
in a way humans have always connected
in a way we have always needed
not just the people close to us or here now
but faraway in every land
in every time before us
in the circles around fires,
circles around tables,
and circles around stages,
we will always sit in circles and tell stories.
Mycelium
is why you feel stories when you hear them
and the stories make you feel something
everlasting even if they are painful
and the stories keep you alive
and will be here when you are gone
and your story will be told in circles
the trees tell you to be brave enough
to tell your story while you still are here.