A Tree And Its Roots

Walking through a park you can discover things you have never seen before, sometimes the adventures of a park can be ever lasting and full of good memories. One particular memory that a grandfather will never forget was when he and his grand-daughter found a certain tree. Molly had been running and practising all day, she had her softball and bat and she and her grandpa and she had been working on her swing for her softball team, so when they got done they thought they would take the long way back to the car. "Grandpa look at that tree, what made it do that," the teen aged girl asked her Grand-father the old looked at the tree for just a minute and said, "Oh that's because of the wind but that tree was stubborn it wouldn't blow down no matter how much that it blew." Molly sat an thought for a moment, "So it was just stubborn, what if the wind blows again?" The grandfather began to get worried, "Then it holds its ground and doesn't let the wind blow it down and if it tries to, stand no matter what, if something tries to make it do something it doesn't want to do it relies on it's roots and the roots take care of it by holding the tree up." The girl smiled, "Oh that's some strong roots, grandpa." The grand-father looked at Molly and very seriously asked her, "What's bothering you girl?" Molly looked at her grandpa and said, "Well this boy has been wanting me to do something I haven't wanted to do, but it's fine now I know what to do." The grandpa just plainly said, "If he doesn't get the message let me know, rely on your roots." Molly laughed, "He's been wanting me to go out with him on a date, I kept saying no but since you said I can rely on my roots, Mom Dad, and you, I think I will go out with him because if anything goes wrong I know you'll be there." The grandfather felt like he put his foot in his mouth but he knew this day would come, his little girl, his little grand daughter was growing up in front of his eye's, "Oh girl your only fifteen years old do you think you should wait for a while longer?" Molly laughed again seeing how uncomfortable the older man was talking about this, "Grandpa, Grandma was married at seventeen I'll be fine. Now he knew he had put his foot in his mouth but it was fine he knew she was right while she was on this date he knew he would be awake until she called him that night ready to move into action just like he was in Nam again, and then he thought, "Tell the boy that if he tries anything, anything at all, I was in Nam with the special forces and it won't take me long to find him if he hurts you." The girl hugged her grand-father, "Grandpa that's what I was not saying yes, I was worried about how you would react but since you're okay with me dating with limits, I'll take that as your blessing." The grand-father realized it wasn't the boy she was worried about it was him and that put a feeling in his chest that felt like tears but he was battle hardened enough not to show emotions too much so he just hugged Molly back and said, "Now tomorrow we come back and I start teaching you how to defend yourself, I think it's time you learned some dirty tricks on how to keep boy's hands of you." The grand-daughter knew not to argue, "Okay grand-pa." They just stood there and looked at the tree leaning and standing at the same time, "I love you grandpa." The old man didn't say his feeling often but right now he couldn't help it and said with big tears in his eyes, "I love you too baby."