The First Father  by Tara Sitser

In the newly awakening wilderness that has been his home since his expulsion from the Garden of Eden, Adam sits beneath the budding branches of an ancient Willow tree. His eyes grow wide with surprise and delight as he sees green leaves and long trailing garlands reaching for the earth.   

Since the time of their exit from the Garden, Adam has struggled through the long, dark winter working to provide for his wife and two infant sons. His constant companion has been the dread of what life will be like for his children in a world without sunlight, without growth, a world defined by the heaviness of a dull winter’s sky.

His own participation in the events that caused the looming darkeness weighs heavily on his heart.  Is he responsible for creating the all-encompassing, desaturated world that will define their fate?

But today the ground has thawed. The sky has lightened. The thing that he did not expect has happened. The sun has returned. The skies have cleared. New life reaches up from the earth to greet a new season.

As he begins to feel a sense of welcome from Mother Earth, an understanding begins to emerge within him.  The darkness that had imprisoned them is not static. It ebbs and flows and, eventually, fades as the new light presents itself to the world.

The first Spring has arrived! And, with great relief, Adam breathes softly into the gentle breeze that washes the sun-filled air.

As he ponders this transformation, Adam begins to know that he, like the darkness, is carried by an inner ebb and flow that guides his vision.  And now, after watching the sun rise, he sees a path forward for his children. A path that he knows will be filled with hills and valleys, spring rains and frozen roads, bountiful harvests and fallow fields. It will be a path that contains the dancing partnership of both the darkness and the light. For the first time he sees the continuity of Nature’s cycles, and, for the first time, he feels a new thing growing inside of himself – Hope!

And then, a greater truth appears in the depths of his spirit.  This will also be true for his grandchildren and his great-grandchildren and their children. And, astonished at the reach of his own epiphany, he sees his progeny many generations hence spread across the earth, all of them struggling through the dark nights that feel endless.

Overwhelmed by the need to present these thoughts to generations still unborn, Adam transcribes these words to be delivered to those who live on after him:

“To the Children of the Future,

I am Adam. The first man to be alive. The first man to question the world. The first man to pay the price for his unknowing actions. The first father to search for ways to raise his children with the resilience to see past the darkness to the seemingly distant but inevitably approaching coming of the light. 

As you read this note I will have lived my life a very long time ago. You will know more about the Earth and her seasons than I have had time to learn. But, even now, I can foretell that, often, as you wander through the twists and turns of your life’s journey, you will feel the road closing in on you.

For those times I offer you the realization that Winter is a changeable place. Life may be hibernating, but it will surely break through the heavy blanket of stagnation that holds you down and, slowly, the streams will begin to flow. The wildlife will come out of hiding and show you how to begin again.

I promise you, my children, every year, in every chapter of your life, after each dark Winter, the light of Spring will open its arms to you.”