There once was a tree at the edge of a fast-flowing river. All his life he had heard the sound of water rushing past. Of course, trees don't have ears, not exactly, but they are very sensitive, they feel everything, every vibration around them, every breeze, even every voice in the forest. And so, even when he was just a tiny seedling, barely out of the seed, he felt the very earth beneath him trembling from the movement of the water.

There is a secret language that all the creatures of the forest learn as they grow, a language that doesn't depend on ears or voices, but on feelings. And, just as human children learn a language by listening to their parents, so this tiny tree learned the language of the forest. At first it was just mumblings and sounds, but as his roots took hold in the soil and his trunk began to straighten and lift his leaves towards the light, he began to understand the voices around him. 'My, you're LEAFY!' they said.

"Who?" he asked.

"YOU," they said, "and my, aren't you growing fast! What's the hurry? Do you want to grow taller than all the rest of us, and steal our sunshine?"

"Yes, I want to grow tall!" he said. "I'm a tree! I want to be a tall tree, and strong, I want to see far and wide!"

The other trees and plants all laughed. "Before you get too tall, you'd better think about what happens to trees that grow so tall!" they said.

"What?" he asked, but they wouldn't answer. They just laughed.

"Keep on growing that way," they said, "and you'll find out soon enough, leafy!"

He stretched out his limbs and branches then, and felt the hundreds of little leaves blooming everywhere on them, and said happily, "Yes, I'm Leafy, and watch me grow! I'm not afraid to get tall!" He looked up eagerly at the sky and wondered out loud, "When will I be able to catch a cloud?" and set all his strength and will to growing as fast and tall as he could.

But a tree can only grow so fast, nature has its laws, and so it took patience, and SO many years, and more patience still. And thus he had plenty of time to listen to the river rushing by, to feel the earth vibrating around his roots day and night, winter as in summer, season after season, the sound never stopped. And one day he wondered, and he asked, not really expecting an answer, "Where are you going in such a hurry?"

To his surprise he heard the river murmur, "To the sea. I'm just flowing. To the sea. I have to. I'm a river. That's what all rivers do!"

"What's the SEA?" he asked, excited by the very word.

"I don't know," replied the river. "I've never seen the sea. But that's where I'm going. I know that much. That's where all rivers go.'

After that, as he grew, day by day, he thought more and more of the sea. Now he not only thought of getting tall enough to catch a cloud, he thought of getting tall enough to see the sea.

The other trees, who heard his thoughts, laughed and laughed. "You can't get that tall, Leafy," they teased. "There's never been a tree that tall! The sea's too far to see, even if you were as tall as a mountain." And he heard the ripples of laughter moving out through the forest, as the story spread.

"How far is it, then?" he asked them.

Back came the answer from every side, "Too far! Oh, so far! So far you'll never see it!"

"I will," said Leafy, and he shook his thousands of leaves in anger (for he now had thousands) and in determination, but they only laughed more.

Then the tallest tree in the whole forest said, 'Young fellow, whatever your name is..."

"Leafy," said Leafy, respectfully.

"Yes, well, look at me! I'm hundreds of years old! Even I can't see the sea! You could grow for hundreds of years, even till you were bigger than me, but if I can't see it, how can you hope to?"

"I'll see it, and it won't take me hundreds of years!" replied Leafy. "I can't wait that long. If I have to, I'll just go there."

At that, the old tree laughed so hard that it sounded like thunder in the forest, and a nearby willow smiled so much that he split his bark. Leafy heard laughter all around him, but it didn't bother him, for he was sure that if you want something badly enough, the opinion of others doesn't matter. This time he even heard the River chuckling, so he said, "Go ahead, laugh. Run along to the sea. And tell him I'm dreaming of him all the time."

"Her," murmured the River. "The sea is a she, not a he. That much I know."

"Well then, tell her I'll come and see her. Tell her I think of nothing else," said Leafy.

"Right," said the River. "When I see her, I'll be sure to tell her. What a tree you are, Leafy!" And from then on, the rumble of the River warmed his roots. It reminded Leafy at every moment that the River, which never ceased moving towards the sea, was his bond with her, and he stretched out all his leaves in happiness.

"Go," he thought. "Go tell her I'll see her one day, some day!"

And suddenly, the other trees stopped talking to him. They leaned towards each other and agreed in whispers that poor Leafy was crazy. Every sane being knew that trees were born in one spot, where their roots burrowed into the earth, and that they stayed there and grew there until they died.

Now that the trees no longer bothered him with their chattering and their advice, Leafy had more time to talk to the birds. Birds and trees are very good friends, of course. The tree gives the birds a place to sit and rest, and in return the birds keep the trees well-informed, or try to. The problem, Leafy soon found out, is that birds are, as they say, 'bird brains.' You can't always make much sense out of what they tell you.

For instance, ask one bird what color the sea is, and you'd get fifty birds shouting out fifty different colors at once. Then they'd start arguing about it among themselves until it gave Leafy a headache, yet he still had no idea what color she really was. "Maybe every color," he thought to himself, "but how can that be?"

An old crow said, "Ask me anything about the sea, Leafy. I've been there at least fifty times. You want to know what it looks like? It's flat."

"Flat?" Leafy couldn't imagine what that looked like.

"Not flat at all," said a Magpie, "It's got waves all over it!"

"Waves?" said Leafy, "what are those?" and the Magpie tried and tried to explain it, using her wings, but a wave is a really difficult thing to describe, even if you're a scientist, and this Magpie was no scientist. This left Leafy even more confused than before. Then two ducks went on about how the sea contained all these good things to eat, and that it was also very comfortable to sit on, and that didn't make things much clearer.

One day a petrel told Leafy , "It's vast! That's what the sea is. Believe me, Leafy, I've flown all over the globe, and the sea is everywhere! This land you live on, why, it's nothing! Just an island in the endless sea. How I love flying over it! And that's good luck, since there isn't much else to fly over!"

All these descriptions of the sea left Leafy confused, but more than ever convinced that he'd simply have to find out for himself... but when?

2. The Messenger

Years passed, years during which his trunk lengthened and thickened, his leafy crown spread and flourished, and his roots dug deeper into the earth to support his trunk and limbs. Finally one day he realized, "Growing is no solution. Now that I'm getting into my full growth, I'm just getting more and more STUCK here!" However, just when he was thinking these depressing thoughts, he heard a voice coming from downstream.

"Where IS this tree called Leafy?"

Leafy heard the voice long before he saw the strange, beautiful creature who came swimming powerfully upstream against the rushing river.

"Leafy? That's ME!"

By this time the tireless swimmer was in the shadow of Leafy's boughs, and he did the most amazing thing Leafy had ever seen. He stood on his tail, clean out of the water, and somehow (how DID he do it?!) he bowed. Then, in a flash, he dove beneath the river's busy surface and when he re-emerged, it was to Leafy's even greater astonishment, for the dolphin came flying out of the river high into the air, saying, "Pleased to meet you, Leafy, glad I found you!" Then he was gone beneath the surface again before his head emerged and he added, 'She's waiting for you."

"What?" cried Leafy.

"The Sea! She sent me," said the dolphin. "'Ask him what's keeping him,' she told me. 'Tell him he shouldn't make promises and not keep them.'"

"You mean the Sea, the vast Sea, thinks of ME?"

"Well, she remembers your promise! The trouble with promises, Leafy, is that the one who makes a promise often forgets, but the person to whom the promise was made, never!"

"The River told her, then!" said Leafy. "Good old River!"

"So, Leafy, do you think I've got all day here to swim in this rushing water? I want to get back to the Sea, where there's no current like this one. So what's your answer? I've made a long, long swim to get it. What shall I tell the Sea?"

"Tell her I'm stuck! It's my roots. I thought if I just grew big enough, but that's made it worse! My roots go so deep into the ground! I want so much to keep my promise, but I just can't!"

"Well," said the dolphin, at this moment dancing back up on his tail, "You'll have to give me a better answer than that to take back. The sea would make my life miserable if I dared to come back with a silly answer like that!"

"Alright, then," said Leafy, "tell her I'll come as soon as I figure out how."

The dolphin then made an enormous leap in the air and said, "That's better, Leafy, but it's not good enough. You can't just send ANOTHER promise to deal with a broken promise!"

And now Leafy fell into a deep, sad silence. It was perhaps the saddest moment of his entire life, talking with the Sea's own messenger, yet feeling himself stuck fast, his roots glued deep into the earth.

"Sad thoughts aren't going to do it, either!" said the dolphin. "You've got to DO something! The time for just talk is over!"

"But what can I do?" cried Leafy.

"Don't they teach you anything up here in the forest?"

"Not much," admitted Leafy. "For a long time now, nothing at all."

"Well, what someone should have taught you, my dear tree, is something that any dolphin learns in his first months of life. If you can't do something all by yourself, get HELP! Ask for help!"

"Ask? Ask who?"

The dolphin chuckled. "Why, your friends, of course! Friends are always willing to help, if you ask them nicely! So, don't be so terribly proud, Leafy. That's why you're stuck. Get some help!"

"But I don't have any friends," moaned Leafy. "Except the Sea."

"Well, she won't be your friend for long, if you don't keep that promise! Goodbye, Leafy, I'm just about worn out from fighting this river. What power he has!"

"But wait, what are you going to tell her?" cried Leafy. "Wait, please!"

The dolphin had stretched out on his back on the surface of the water and the River rapidly began to carry him away.

"Don't worry, I'll tell her the truth," the dolphin called back, "that you were stuck, but that with the little lesson I gave you, you'll have found the solution even before I get back to the Sea. See you soon, Leafy," called the dolphin, and then, "Wheeeee!" he cried, but in the next second, the River had carried him around the bend, and out of sight.

Suddenly Leafy found himself all alone again, alone as he had always been, but now, it was different! How could he be sad, SHE was thinking of him, SHE was waiting for him, SHE had sent a messenger! No, he wasn't alone any longer, not really, not with these thoughts to keep him company.

"But WHAT friends? I don't have any friends, except maybe a petrel, and an old crow, and a few ducks, but what could they possibly do to help?"

Leafy was thinking just these sad thoughts when he felt the River touch one of his roots. The wetness and coolness of the water thrilled Leafy, and shocked him at the same time, and so did the voice of the River, which mumbled at the same moment, "And what about ME?"

"What?"

"Didn't I carry a message for you, over thousands of miles?"

"Yes. You did."

"Did you think I would do that for just anyone? No, that's the kind of thing you'd only do for a friend," murmured the River, "for someone you love."

This discovery, that he was LOVED, left Leafy trembling all over.

"Haven't I always stayed near you, Leafy, since you were a tiny seedling?"

"But you were always rushing away." said Leafy.

"Yes, but still here, too. That's the magic of being a river, Leafy. Always rushing away, but always still here, too."

"Yes, you're faithful," said Leafy, "You've always listened."

"And I always will," said the River. "We rivers are great listeners, my friend. We run, but we listen as we run."

"Then, can you help me, River?" whispered Leafy.

"Ah," murmured the River. "I wondered if you'd ever get around to asking! You've always been so proud, so self-sufficient!"

"Well, I'm not proud now, River! I'm desperate! I made a promise I can't keep, unless you or someone helps me!"

"Relax, Leafy. I've already begun. Don't you feel me touching your deepest roots?"

"Yes! Yes, it's exciting, but what's going to happen?" asked Leafy.

"What's going to happen is your FATE, Leafy."

"FATE? What's that?"

"It's what you were born for, what you grew up for. Any tree who grows so tall, so close to the River's edge, has this as his fate --- to one day fall into the arms of a river and be carried towards the sea!" And even as he spoke the River washed the dirt away from a new section of Leafy's roots, and Leafy, for the first time in his whole life, felt his trunk move a bit, just a hint, a fraction, from where it had always stood, reaching for the clouds.

"What's going to happen to me, River?" asked Leafy, bravely but with a touch of uncertainty. It was all happening so fast!

"I don't know THAT," said the River, "I'm just a river! But I do know this, it's a great adventure you're going on, and I'm coming with you as far as I can!" And the River continued to nibble at the earth which had been so firmly packed around Leafy's roots. "You heard that dolphin call me powerful? Even the strongest dolphin on earth gets tired, but a river, never!"

"I'm lucky to have such a powerful friend," said Leafy.

"Yes," said the River, "I'm relentless, I never rest, I never stop! Now that you've asked me to help, watch me chew away this embankment you've stood on for all you life. You thought it was solid ground, but to a river, nothing is solid, even rock can be worn away by a tireless river like me. Look around you, Leafy, at this huge valley between these mountains - who do you think dug this entire valley?"

"You?" asked Leafy, in awe, as he looked at the wide, long valley where he stood.

"Yes, all of it! I meandered, I wandered, first to those mountains over there, then to these mountains over here, chewing up and carrying away all the hills in between. For someone who can clear away a whole valley of rock and earth, do you think a little embankment like this is a problem?"

And now Leafy felt the wetness and coldness of the River's currents caressing more and more of his roots. 'Exciting, but more and more scary,' thought Leafy, because suddenly it happened again, his trunk shifted again, not so slightly this time, he was leaning! And now his roots were all vibrating from the caresses of the cold river currents. Leafy could feel the earth which had held him firm and straight all his life shifting and crumbling, and suddenly it was happening, his high leafy crown which had reached for the sky was falling, falling, falling towards the River rushing below, and with a splash so loud and wonderful that he would remember it all his life, Leafy fell full length into the River.

"What a splash," laughed the River, "and what a tree you are, Leafy! Now just lie back, and leave the rest to me. Here we go!" And with this, the River began to tug gently at the boughs and roots and leaves of his friend.

Leafy, lying on his back in the current, staring up at the clouds, felt as happy as he'd ever felt in his life. "Look at me, all you trees, I'm leaving, you all laughed, but I'm doing what I said!" cried Leafy, and this time, he heard no laughter at all. 

4. The Journey

Imagine, when you have spent your entire life standing in one place, looking at the same view day and night, season after season, year after year, just imagine what it's like to suddenly have everything changing around you, every few minutes, sometimes every few seconds. Happy? "Happy" was too small a word to describe the feelings that overwhelmed Leafy as he and his friend, the River, began their long voyage together. Leafy lay on his back in the running current, absolutely stunned to silence by the beautiful scenery that was flowing smoothly past him.

There were species of trees he had not only never seen but had never even heard of, so tall you could barely see their tops, and Leafy thought, "Surely some of these trees can catch a cloud, as I dreamed of doing when I was small!"

One of the tallest trees, hearing Leafy's thoughts, answered, "Of course we can, at least when the clouds come down near the earth, and it feels so wonderful, they're so cool and damp and misty, they moisten your leaves better than any rain."

For of course all trees love and need moisture and the rain, just as much as they need sunshine. And, as for moisture, well, Leafy, growing up so near the River all his life, had never lacked for water, but now he was drenched from head to foot, or rather from his topmost branches to his longest roots. Even his thick, handsome bark was soaked through with nice, cool moisture as it had never been before. And, as human beings get a little tipsy when they drink a few glasses of beer, a tree will get just as tipsy if he has unlimited water to drink and absorb, so Leafy felt more elated, more excited, more alive than he ever had as a tree standing in the forest.

"Wheeeeee!" he shouted, as the River rushed him around a sharp curve, and again, when the River suddenly dropped so sharply that for a few seconds Leafy came partly out of the water. "Flying," he thought, "for a moment there I was flying. What an indescribable feeling! So that's why birds are always singing."

"Fun, isn't it?" murmured the River.

"Oh, yes, River, I never dreamed life could be so beautiful."

"And this is just the beginning, Leafy. There's so much more to come."

The River was right. At times there were golden meadows on each side, rampant with flowers of every size and color. At other moments Leafy could see the distant mountains, capped with snow, far taller than the mountains where he grew up. The white snow against the dark stone of the peaks and the pure blue light of the sky behind them filled Leafy with such a feeling of wonder and contentment that he felt like singing, just as the birds used to do in his branches.

"And, it's so easy!" thought Leafy, "this trip to the sea, lying so happy and relaxed in my friend's currents, seeing so many new and wonderful things day after day."

"Yes, Leafy, but remember please that this is only the beginning of the trip," murmured the River. "I told you that you were setting off on a great adventure. Wait until you've gone through a few sets of rapids before you decide how easy it is."

"Rapids?" wondered Leafy. "What's that?"

"You'll find out soon enough," said the River. "There's a set of them coming up in just a mile or so. Don't you hear them yet? Listen!"

So as the River bore him along, Leafy listened carefully, and soon enough, besides the bubbling he'd been hearing for days, he heard from downstream a whole new set of sounds: rushing sounds, crashing noises, then a threatening roar that grew louder each second he listened to it. And now the River began to rush, to hasten its pace, pulling Leafy along faster and faster, which at first was fun but quickly became scary.

"What are you rushing for?" he asked the River, "Slow down, please!"

"But, I have to rush! My bed is steeper along here, the strong slope makes me roll along faster," answered the River. "I have no choice, I always rush through the rapids. There's no sense fighting it, Leafy, so just let it happen!"

Leafy now heard roaring noises coming from just beyond the bend... and suddenly he was in the rapids! All around him now the water was boiling and foaming. The noise was overwhelming, and it was really UPSETTING, twirling, rolling in the water like this, not knowing how it would end, and BAM! A terrible shock ran through him as the River slammed him broadside into a huge rock in the center of the riverbed. Leafy was quite shaken.

"Hey, River, watch where you're pushing me! If my trunk wasn't so strong, that rock would have broken me in two!"

"How can I watch anything when I'm rushing like this?" the River hissed back, "and if you're going to travel this way, you'd better be strong enough to take the rocks!" and BAM! he slammed Leafy into another rock, then BAM! another, and at breakneck speed Leafy found himself spinning, rolling, rushing, and bouncing off rock after rock. He was up one moment, down another, almost flying for an instant, then crashing so far and so hard that he scraped along the rough, stony bottom of the River. He felt one of his limbs twist, then bend, then break, and now he could hardly tell which way was up and which was was down any more.

Then suddenly it was all over, the roar of the River was left behind, the channel was deep and smooth, and Leafy was at peace again.

"My, my, my," was all Leafy could say.