Little Tree Poem by Jim Yerman

On an early walk along the beach I was enjoying the sand and the sea when I heard a voice from beneath my feet saying…"Please, don't step on me! "

Immediately I stopped, looked down and wondered aloud…"Who is talking to me? "
then a voice from a twig in the sand answered, "Down here…it's me…the tree."

"Oh, I don't think you are a tree." I said. "Why you're only six inches tall…
although you look a little like a tree…I believe you're much too small."

"You silly misguided human." He replied. "It's not me but your mind that's small.
To a tiny grain of sand I am 100 feet tall."

"And by human standards you're not very tall yourself." He continued. "Like me with height you haven't been blessed. Should I say you are not human because your not as tall as all the rest? "

"Good point." I said as I smiled and got down on bended knee…then moved in a little closer so I could listen to the tree.

"Sometimes you humans are so egotistical." The little tree said. "But I no longer find that surprising. It's still dark…continue your walk…and come back when the sun is rising."

So I did as the little tree suggested…wondering what more he could possibly teach…and returned to him as the sun was rising…as it began to light up the beach.

There was the little tree where I left him…smiling…illuminated by the sun
and I saw by the expression on his face…my lesson was not done.

The little tree said nothing…but now he didn't seem so small…
for his shadow on the beach now stretched over 10 feet tall.

He beckoned me to kneel down again…and much to my surprise…
when he pointed up the beach…our shadows were the very same size.

"I've found in all my time on this beach." The little tree said. "In all the years that past…
It's not my size that matters but the size of the shadow that I cast."

It's amazing where we find our teachers isn't it…this morning on a walk down by the sea…my teacher was in the sand right under my feet…
in the form of a little tree.