I’M ONLY SLEEPING

Where am I? What’s happening? I thought I heard screams in the night. Could I have been dreaming?

I’m supposed to be sleeping, waiting for the Spring. It’s too soon to be warming up like this. My lower extremities are aching as though someone as been tugging on them but I’m not in pain. Some of my friends have suffered excruciating agony.

My limbs feel a little heavy and there’s a slight pressure on my head. I can hear faint voices now. It’s hard to make out the words but they sound like “brilliant”, “wonderful idea”. What does it all mean? What is a wonderful idea?

I have no clue how much time has passed; I think only a week or so but I’m very tired. I need to sleep.

Now it feels like I’m being carried somewhere; I’m a little afraid. What’s happening to me? Am I being placed in a hole? I can feel something familiar and soothing covering my base and I smell the crisp outdoors. I detect the fragrance of fresh soil.

I’m feeling a chill again; that warming sensation is passing. It feels like I’m bound up but I’m comfortable – like being enveloped in a blanket of snow. I feel safe, as though in a cocoon.

Thank you for not taking an ax to me. Thank you for digging me up and keeping me alive. I will grow strong in your yard in the Spring.

It was a joy spending Christmas with you!

I’m not dead; I’m only sleeping.

One of the saddest things is seeing all the dead and forgotten Christmas trees discarded after the season.
Next time you go looking for a Christmas tree, consider buying one with its root ball intact;
you can replant it in your yard
or place it in a pot.
It gave you so much joy
during the holidays;
why not give it a chance to live!