Alyosha's Tales: Forest

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Previous tales: Shop, Bonfire, Pipe

Grandfather and Alyosha were sitting by the stream. In the morning they left the house, but got to the place when the sun was already high. Although it was already early autumn in the yard, the sun did not seem to think about it. A dense grove wrapped them up like a blanket from the heat. The forest was very happy with unexpected guests. Maybe because before entering it, the grandfather broke off a piece of bread that he took with him and sat down on one knee, wished all forest dwellers and the forest owner health and prosperity, and asked not to be angry with uninvited guests. He put some pieces under the trees, and some fixed on the branches.

They settled down near the stream. The stream was shallow. A few steps wide, but quite fast. It was evident that it happens in a very full-flowing spring, when melt water descends from the mountains and turns into a real mountain river. He cut the mountain range in two and was a natural watershed. In the taiga, this is found everywhere, but here, the rock, as if growing out of the ground, created bizarre elevation changes and from this formed beautiful rapids and a whole ridge of small waterfalls, along which, sparkling, in the rays of the autumn sun, water rolled down. Just near one such waterfall, next to large stones covered with moss, Alyosha and Grandfather settled down.

Grandfather made a fire from the branches that he collected in the thicket, near the place where they stopped. Alyosha noticed that his grandfather was collecting branches for the fire, as if he was putting things in order in the forest. As if he was not some kind of outside guest there, but the rightful owner of this place. Maybe that's why he wanted to create coziness like at home. In addition, Alyosha did not remember a single case that his grandfather left behind some kind of rubbish or some kind of inaccuracy. Once he told his grandfather about it. To which the grandfather, as usual, smiled cheerfully and said that it was so.

Anywhere, Alyosha, you must first get out and put things in order. From that such a place becomes anyone. Anything, okay outside, as well as inside. Or maybe vice versa, who knows. You think that you are cleaning up the forest, but in fact you are putting things in order in your soul - the grandfather squinted cheerfully, looking at the boy. Well, now you will do this. Now you know how to do it. And when you start to do it with your own hands, you will explain a lot of things to yourself and new things that you did not even think about, you will discover.

Whether it was long or short, but now the branches crackled in the fire. The fire did not really want to flare up. Then the grandfather sat down and blew into it. The bonfire immediately responded and perked up. From the outside, it looked like the grandfather breathed life into the fire. As if an unknown spirit filled the fire with Power. Grandfather, as if something, whispered and the wind, coming from nowhere, caught his breath. Probably, observing from the side, no one would even pay attention to it. But the boy saw, the grandfather spoke with the fire and the wind, in one language that only he knew. But the most important thing was that they answered him. They understood each other. It was so obvious that he simply had no doubts about it.

- Why are we kindling a fire? - asked Alyosha.

- What would the place start up - somehow mysterious, answered the Grandfather.

- And what does it mean, let it go? the boy asked, puzzled.

- Well, look, a person has fire and light inside. Do you remember?

- I remember, of course - the boy nodded.

- But this fire is not in the Explicit World, as it were. Here we are its semblance in the explicit world and transfer it. Light inside, light outside. The fire helps the soul to open up. So we illuminate the place. Internal fire and external. One supports and aligns the other. The easiest way. There are others, of course. But for me, the simpler the better. Difficulties are not from a great mind, they say among the people. Now the truth is the lighting of the place, God knows what people understand. But our ancestors understood that at the heart of the light comes from the soul.

- It turns out an inner fire, that in the soul and the fire seem to merge? - the boy thought.

- So I say so - the grandfather smiled. Now the fire is our helper. If you stayed in the forest at night, what will you do?

- Make a fire!

- Why?

- Well, I don’t know, some kind of protection. He drives away the darkness. It gives warmth. Light. The heart warms.

“You’re right.” The heart warms first. A person does this, probably, also because his inner fire would not be extinguished either. Cheer yourself up. To create a likeness of oneself and an assistant. Not to lose the strength of the soul so that. Let Alyosha take a look around. What do you see?

It is not clear why, but with his grandfather, he really began to see life in everything. Either the grandfather immersed him in some unknown world, or from the grandfather himself everything around came to life. But only the movement of life seemed to fill the space around him. Everything seemed to be blossoming, reaching out to him and filling with light. The forest seemed alive. The trees were people. Each tree is the same as the neighboring tree, but they are all different. Their crowns stretched towards the sun, but at the same time, spreading out at the top, they seemed to cover young, fragile trees and other forest inhabitants from bad weather. By their desire to reach for the sun, they, as if by the way, without hesitation, created a whole world below, which was home to animals, birds and other plants.

- When I look at the forest, it always seems to me that it is alive - said Alyosha.

- The way it is. Have you ever doubted it? - slyly winked at him grandfather. Let's take a closer look. Does a tree look like a person?

- Well, it is also alive - answered Alyosha.

- But can it walk? - the grandfather smiled.

- I have not met such - the boy scratched his head.

- To tell the truth, I too - said the grandfather and laughed merrily. But let's take a look at this. A man, like a tree, is nourished by his native land. From this the earth is a nurse both for us and for the tree. Our ancestors revered her as a Mother. "Mother is a damp earth" - they said. She is also our support. Without support, a person has no strength. There is nothing to rely on in life they say about such. So it is by the tree. No native land - no roots. In man, his roots are Rod. Dear people. Mother, Father, Grandfather, Grandmother, Brothers, Sisters. Previously, many generations remembered kinship, not like now. Maybe because of that, too, the people became weaker than they were before. A genus is a support like the roots of a tree. That is why they say about a person who has no native land, that he does not stand on his feet and does not remember his roots. And if so, where does the Power of the earth come from? So we saw off the trunk from the roots, how long will that tree stand?

“It won’t stand at all, and you won’t be able to hold it back.”

- That's it! Let's look further. Here is the forest. Isn't that one tree?

“There’s no way to count them! And they are all different.

- Different. Right. In the forest, more than one tree grows, of course. There are many of them here. They create their own climate. Comfort for life. Culture, one might even say. One word is the same society as people. But I still prefer the word People. After all, the forest is different, as well as the peoples. There are birch, oak, maple and ash groves. And they all get along with each other. But tangerines do not grow in the spruce taiga for some reason. There are cultivated plants, there are weeds, there are wild plants. Yes, only now, often the same trees do not grow in different conditions, even on different lands. That's why they grow well on their own land only. The forest and the border have their own, in a word, like people. There are places where trees support each other, and there are places where they cannot get along, because some take the life of others. In the woods, places are usually so gloomy. And the person in them is bad.

- Just like in our village, Alyosha frowned.

- On the other hand. The forest lives on its native land and in such a climate it is no coincidence. And just imagine, one tree decided to leave its people and move to the other end of the world, to another forest. You and I know that a tree from the forest can only move without roots. And without roots, it is no longer a tree but lumber or even firewood. So, will it take root without roots?

- Of course not - the boy was sincerely surprised.

- And if you take it with roots and transport it? - the grandfather narrowed his eyes.

- Then maybe.

- But will that tree take root, not on its own land? Constantly he will miss something. Either it is hot, or damp, or cold, and then look and the forest will be different, that the desire to live will disappear. It's the same with people. Well, okay, in my native land, with my relatives nearby, but in my culture. A native culture for a person is the same as a native land underfoot. Strength from it is added three times in a person.

The main thing is to look at the nature of Alyosha. Always watch. The laws that people write change, the teachings, the views of people, their morals change, and what exists in nature has been for thousands of years. And Nature is a clue to how to do it right. She is wise. Through her, the world of Rule is reflected in our world.

And what kind of Mir rules? - asked Alyosha.

A world in which everything is correct - only the grandfather answered, and began to look for a pot for Ivan-tea.