I cling to mother as the storm brews.

Anxiety begins to build within me as I imagine the reality of detaching from her.

Life with mother is all that I know.

She was my beginning.

She is my nourishment.

She is my constant.

Since I was a small green bud I have nestled at her fingertips, yet now the wind encircles me and tugs at me with its brutal force.

I lift above mother, clinging to her desperately.

Mother holds me this time but the wind returns.

Mothers branches begin to sway violently and the vibrations are felt by all of her children.

Oh mother do not let go! We call to mother but the wind is too strong.

I feel myself being pulled again but this time the force overwhelms me.

I feel myself being torn from mother, my life line disconnected forever.

I am thrown from mother and am taken by the wind.

I look back to see her one last time.

I am pushed through the storm, occasionally resting at the surface I starred at for my entire life but never dreamed of touching.

I would rest momentarily on the earth but I could not mourn for the wind would sweep me back up again and take me somewhere new.

This continues until the storm settles.

Eventually the wind calms, leaving me at my resting place.

My resting place is a quiet meadow.

The sun now shows itself behind the once darkened clouds and I feel it beaming down on my face.

This place would be peaceful for some but for me it is my grave.

The sun that once nourished me now dries me like leather.

I feel sad without mother.

As the days pass I feel the life being drained from within me.

I darken in color until I am nothing but a flaky brown corpse.

I eventually break away and dissolve into the earth.

Many months pass without me knowing.

I was sure my life was over. But then I awaken again.

Not as a corpse but as a green bud.

I feel renewed, nourished, energized.

I open my eyes and see that I am with mother.

I look down on the earth and smile.

It is inevitable that we will meet again.

But knowing that I will someday return to mother puts me at ease.

She is, forever, my constant.