The Tree That Wanted to Touch the Sky
Once upon a time, there was a young tree growing in a quiet forest, on the edge of the world.
Looking up at the sky, it would always say:
“I feel like that’s where I belong. I want to grow, to have branches so high they touch the clouds and maybe also the stars.”
Time passed, but the tree didn’t grow the way he had hoped.
Relentless storms battered him, strong winds broke his branches, rain soaked his thick bark, and dry summers shriveled his leaves.
Sometimes his roots reached so deep into the cold soil filled with hard stones that it caused him excruciating pain.
Going through all this, he felt like it was slowly collapsing into darkness.
“Why?” the tree asked in despair. “Why do I have to endure all this? Wouldn’t it be easier to just stay small?”
On a cold autumn night, as his leaves fell one by one, a deep voice caught its question in the air and whispered back:
“No tree can reach the sky unless its roots are deep enough.”
The tree fell silent. And listened.
He let his roots grow deeper, through mud, between stones, through unseen pains deeply felt and relived.
He began to understand.
He couldn’t rise toward the light without being grounded in the dark.
He couldn’t welcome the wind in full force unless he was well anchored.
He couldn’t bloom without accepting the bare vulnerability of autumn, and the deep sadness he felt every time his comforting leaves fell away…
Years later, one spring, he became the tallest in the forest.
Not because he fought the sky, but because he had chosen to learn from its own depth, and to wait.
And in the quietest corner of his soul, the echo of that voice was now taking root, supporting him from the shadows:
“Sadness prepares you for joy. It sweeps everything out of your house with force so that new joy can find space to enter your heart again.” Rumi
And then the sun rose in the sky.
Even though the tree hadn’t reached the clouds, he felt wonderful. Because it was closer to the sky than any other tree from the entire forest, and the view was wide and uniquely his own.
A dazzlingly beautiful bird noticed his strength and chose one of his solid branches to build a nest and start singing daily the most beautiful songs in the forest.
Growth begins the moment we dare to go down.
“Keep a green tree in your heart and perhaps a singing bird will come.” Chinese proverb
This is a story inspired by the collision of two quotes that have orbited my inner universe in the past few days. After losing my beloved cat I feel like I am starting to grow as this tree. I hope you enjoyed this story and found what you needed within it.
Key Points
“No tree, it is said, can reach to heaven unless its roots reach down to hell.”
Carl Jung
Jung reminds us that our elevation, spiritually, psychologically, or humanly, is proportional to how deeply we confront our shadow, our pain, our inner “hell.”
“Sadness prepares you for joy. It sweeps everything out of your house with violence, so that new joy can find room to enter.”
Rumi
Rumi, the Sufi mystic and poet, speaks here of pain’s transformational role. Not as punishment, but as preparation.
Sadness, loss, and pain, even though they seem to destroy, they actually free our inner space from old attachments, illusions, and burdens, so that deeper, truer joy can take root.
Together, these two quotes offer a law of inner growth:
To truly know the light (joy, spiritual happiness, peace) we must walk through the shadows, the sadness, the personal “hell.”
Sadness becomes the tool through which our roots deepen. The deeper the roots grow into the pain we’ve felt, the higher the branches can reach toward the light.
So next time life sends you “to the roots,” don’t be afraid.
It might just be the beginning of something spectacular in bloom.
Grow with courage, rain yourself with patience, and remember: even trees have bad days.
Wishing you a day full of brave roots and dreaming branches ❣️🌳