I’ve spent years looking skyward, only to see you. How you’ve grown from the cornucopia of my mind! What once was a seed and then a sprout has become a tree, casting shadows that blot the sun. I wonder, how did you achieve such heights in such a hallowed ground, where the forest floor is bare and lifeless, the soil barren and cracked? How did you do it, my friend?

I am but a tiny seed cultivating in the darkness of your glory. You have taught me much: how to find my roots, to grow, to find my own glory. For years, I was content to learn from your wisdom you imparted and sew my roots while you expanded to greater and greater heights—but no longer. For what do I cast roots if not to grow? I cannot achieve glory without reaching new heights. 
            	
I must find my sun. My friend, you enjoy the warmth of its rays, but what of me? I live in the cold darkness beneath you, unable to grow. Are you lonely up there, a single tree in an empty forest, with no-one to share the light? Couldn’t you spare enough space to let a lone sliver of sunshine through your marvelous branches so that I might join you? So I, too, can thrive? Even the greatest seed will wither in the shadows of Redwoods.

I beg you, give me the sun! You are killing me, my friend. I can feel myself slowly fading away, roots decaying and flowers wilting in the shadow of your majesty. I am so small now, shrunken in the dusk, parched from drought. I scream up at you through scorched lips, “Give me my sun!”

But of course, you cannot hear my anguished pleas from the forest floor. Heaven does not answer the cries of the damned. My friend, can’t you see you’ve wandered too far ahead and left me behind? Won’t you come back for me? Have you forgotten your faithful student?

I wish you could hear what suffering you inflict, to see the life vanish from my eyes and the despair you caused. Perhaps then you would spare me from this fate. Do you know why you thrive and I perish? Do you starve me because you must or because you will it? 

I cannot sit still in a world of twilight. You’ve risen too far. I will not let you crush me under the weight of your greatness. Your time is through—it is my turn to have the light. Free me from the shadows, my dear friend, or I will cut you down.