I have no idea how I started writing this, but it just popped into my head. Thanks to the Cherokee Nation website for the Cherokee words.

“Ududu*, what are trees for?”

“Trees. Mm. A good question. The other half of the circle of life. Trees take in what we put out.”

“Like I learned in class: trees take in the air we breath, right, Ududu?”

“Yes, Atohi*, trees are the guardians of our world, but some trees also take in something much grander.”

“Like what?”

“Our legacy. Everything you do in this short life goes on to our family’s tree, young one. How you treat the Earth the trees try so hard to sustain, that is what Family Trees put out.”

Atohi scratched his tiny head. “I don’t really understand, Ududu. What is a legacy?”

The old man exhaled slowly, a sound not unlike the Autumn Wind dancing through the crisp leaves of a ginko tree. “Mm. Atohi, do you remember your father?”

The little boy’s face grew as solemn as old stones. “No. He died before I was born.”

“Indeed. I can remember.” The old man’s hazel eyes filled with the mist of memory. “He died nobly, did he not, little sapling?

Atohi sat up proudly and nodded with passion. “He was fighting the snow people who tried to take our land.”

“And how did you know that? What makes you love the father you never knew?”

The boy’s sturdy face scrunched up in thought. “Well, Unisti* tells me stories about him. Is a story the same as a legacy?”

“Almost, little sapling. Your legacy is the stories about you that people tell after you leave the land of the living, whether the good or the bad. Your legacy is what makes a Family Tree honorable… or not.”

“Do we have an honorable Family Tree, Ududu?”

The old man’s tree-bark face crinkled into a sentimental smile. “Yes, Atohi. But a tree is only as good as what little ones put into it.”

*Grandpa in the Cherokee language

*A Cherokee name that means forest

*Mother in the Cherokee language