Imagine a world where there are no weeks in a year, no days in a week and no hours in a day. Time is only measured by what needs to be done. It is a time somewhere in the future or somewhere in the past that time has forgotten.
The animals roam the country and are only killed by each other when they need to eat. The people get on with their lives. They work just hard enough to survive and play more than enough to enjoy life to the full. The little they have they share and no one is neglected, condemned, judged or bullied.
Life was wonderful.
One day a group of children were playing in a wood near their homes and whilst playing they found a white pebble with a hole through the middle. Because this was so unusual they continued to look for other treasures. They found pretty pebbles, shells of different shapes and sizes, nuts and twigs. The boys had do particular use for them so they tied string to them made wind chimes and hung them on a nearby tree.
The breeze caught the objects and made a whistling sound. The children laughed. As the children hung more object on the tree and as the breeze grew stronger the tree appeared to sing.
As daylight left the woods the children went home. However the tree didn’t sleep it sang throughout the night. In the morning many people asked what the noise was. The boys told them it was their singing, ringing tree and took other children and grown ups to see the unusual sight and listen to the sounds it made.
Over time the tree was forgotten about and the people became used to the sound it made.
However one day a farmer sat beneath the tree eating his bread and cheese thinking about his field of corn that was ready to harvest. He dreamed of warm weather for a few days at least to make his task easier and also to make sure he would get the most from the crop. The next week the sun shone and the man had a bumper harvest. He couldn’t believe his luck and he was convinced it was the tree that had made his dream come true. So he went back to the tree and laid a sheaf of corn on the roots to say thank you.
He told his wife about the tree who laughed at first but one afternoon went to visit the tree and spoke saying, ‘I have five sons for my husband I would love a little girl who would become my closest friend and companion.’ A year later she had a beautiful baby girl.
The lady couldn’t contain herself and told everyone she knew about the singing ringing tree and how it made dreams come true. The tree became the most popular place to visit and people would share their dreams with the tree and touch it for good luck.
Now many of the dreams that were shared with the tree came true but many didn’t. Some people were happy and some were sad and felt emotions they had never felt before. They became angry and jealous and bitter and they tried to please the tree by laying present at the base, by talking to the tree, by sweeping up the stray leaves and by shooing away the birds and animals that came to use the tree. Still their dreams were just dreams.
These people became more and more angry and got together and said that the tree wasn’t able to make dreams come true it was a fake. They began to damage the tree by pulling off the ornament but strangely the tree continued to sing and still some dreams came true.
They made their own tree and decorated it with natural ornaments they found around the village. Some people tried telling their dreams to this tree and some of their dreams came true. But the people whose dreams were unfulfilled decorated yet another tree.
This continued until different groups of people were worshipping different trees. They began wearing different clothes so others in the village could recognise which tree they worshipped and worst of all they began to disagree about which the most powerful tree was.
One day an angry young man was damaging one of the dream trees and was caught by one of its dreamers. A fight broke out and the young man was killed. People took sides and the village became divided. Families argued, friends became enemies and the resources of the village were no longer shared with the less fortunate.
Eventually the fighting stopped but the anger remained deep in the souls of the people.
Life continued as it had in the beginning, harvests were sometimes successful sometimes not. Young people fell in love and married. Many had large families some couples had no children at all. Young and old became ill. Many off these got well whilst others died. But now many of the villages didn’t seem to care, they were too interested in their own dreams to help others fulfil theirs.
Somewhere the tree still sings but no one listens. Everyone wants their own tree and sing their own song.
