Photo: Amitai Asif
“I will wait by the tree,”
She had said.
“At the fork where
The road
Meets the lush, green
Horizon.”
Wait she did,
Day again and again
And a month, and another.
Wait until they had come
Trudging home
From the war,
Wearing smiles, but
Carrying the weight
Of their sorrows
Around them.
For Becca Givens’ Sunday Trees
tucked away in the mountains
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Na'ama Yehuda 
Beautifully done. I can’t even imagine how hard it must be to wait…And wait… And wait. And sometimes, in vain.
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Thank you, Dale.
Yes. Some of my friends will never hug their sons again. Some of my family won’t, either. Others have watched their children return from wars changed in ways that no parent wants to ever witness in their child and that they may be helpless to fix, even with all the love they’ve waited to wrap around their offspring.
A friend of mine is seeking help as we speak, for her son – and his mates – for the awfulness they had endured in war and terror.
I cannot understand how any can abide by war. Let alone those who glorify it. There is naught but sorrow in it, in my experience, and while heroism often emerges, its potential does not justify the ugliness of war, or its futility. We’d do so much better as humans if we’d find ways to not feed profiteers or any others who gain from the pain of others.
Did I mention I cannot stand war?
Hugs
Na’ama
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The trunk of this tree is very distinctive! Am surrounded by neighbors who are veterans of war, so I have heard many stories, there is the “waiting” side, but there is also the “coming home” side.
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Yes. And for all too many, also the ‘bringing home the war’ side …
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A very moving depiction of what must be a terrible period of waiting.
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Hi Andrea, Thank you. Yes, these kinds of waitings–wherever in the world they take place–are always heart-rending.
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Poignant, heart-achingly beautiful too
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Thank you! Trees have seen many things, haven’t they? …
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Oh indeed they have
(One of the major characters in my own little fantasy book series regularly interacts with trees)
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🙂 awww…. 🙂 I gotta check it out one day soon! 🙂
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Thanks
There’s extracts of Vol I on my blog and in the next month or so I hope to have completed Vol II soon (details coming to my blog 😄 soon)
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So poignant–and that photo is beautiful.
I agree with you about war.
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Thank you. I love the photo, too — the angle and the composition of it. My nephew took it. As to war … I’m glad we agree …
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a poignant reflection on the agony of war for military and families alike 😦
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Thank you. Yes, for all too many it is a reality that is all too real.
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yes I worked with the services for years!
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