It didn't need much. Just some time to grow - just a little more. A few days where it could keep its head down and spirits up. Where it could live life voraciously through those around it. The tall trees in the distance and the green grass soothing its tiny fluttering heart. The dew tickling its face like a mother as it lovingly caressed the tiny being trying valiantly to come to life.
It didn't need much. Just some hopes and dreams. Vaporware! That can't be asking for too much? Dreams of being out there in the wild one day. All grown up and wise. Teaching other saplings the ways of the world. Hopes of reaching new heights with every passing day. Hopes of having roots so big, no storm could upend. Its strong branches home for many birds. Its broken, discarded twigs becoming parts of warm and welcoming nests. Its shadow a cool respite from the scorching sun for many struggling to find their own roots. Its life a meaningful footprint in the sands of time.
It didn't need much. It didn't have much. Perhaps, it was all too much. And so, out of the blue, came that gush of air that blew all the little that it had. The soil scattered to the winds. Its tiny fingers forcefully unclenched. Uprooted, it crumbled under the weight of nothing around it to hold on to. It became one with that nothingness and went back to where it came from. Where was that? Where do unanswered prayers go?
"I am very sorry, ma'am, but you have had a miscarriage."
She heard those words in slow motion. They took their time reaching her as they etched themselves in her mind. They were meant to shock her out of her stupor. A slap on the face. Telling her something that she already long knew. But all that they did was pull her eyelids down with the weight of that nothingness. What did it mean? A part of her, literally, had just died, and she was supposed to just keep living. Crying. Hoping. Braving the elements and their best intentions. Was it all for nothing? Was it?
Maybe. But isn't all life ephemeral, no matter how long it is? Isn't it always just a blip of time in that grand drumbeat echoing through the universe? Or could it be that this story was the purpose of its life? It lives on through it. It pours into you through these words and finds the soil that it needed for its roots to take hold.
And so it lives on.