In the kingdom of the Emerald Forests, on a cliff overlooking the Silver River, lived Arian and Mira. Mira was a woman with a stormy, aching heart; she carried within her the memory of an old abandonment, and a deep fear that no one truly loved her. Arian, for his part, loved her with every fibre of his soul and had chosen her as his partner out of a deep and genuine commitment.
Arian had deep roots in the kingdom. His family, his brothers and his clan lived in the neighbouring valley. They were simple working people, warm and close-knit. But in Mira's eyes, every tie Arian had with his family was a direct threat to her existence. She saw a greeting from his brother as a disguised insult, and their family celebrations as a scheme designed to draw Arian away from her.
Every time Arian went down to the valley to greet his brothers or to celebrate with them, Mira would break into a storm of weeping and rage: "You are not with me! If you really loved me, you would not even breathe the air they breathe. Going to them is a betrayal of me and of everything I have been through. You are choosing my enemies over my soul!"
Arian, who desperately wanted to give her peace and to prove to her that she was the one and only, began to give things up. First he stopped coming to the festival meals. Then he avoided meeting his brothers' eyes when they passed on the path. Every time he gave up another thread of his ties, he hoped Mira would calm and would finally feel safe. But the flame inside her did not go out – it only demanded more and more proof.
The Wedding in the Valley
One day a messenger came to their house and announced that Arian's younger brother was to be married, and that the whole clan expected him to come and give his blessing beneath the canopy. Mira stood in the doorway, her face pale and her eyes burning: "If you cross this threshold and go down to their wedding, you will have nowhere to come back to. You will be sentencing us to separation. You are a treacherous husband who prefers his family over the woman who gave up her life for you!"
Broken and crushed, Arian sat on the doorstep of the house. His heart was torn between his love for Mira and the blood running in his veins.
The Forest Warden and the Cedar
That night the old forest warden, the keeper of the birds, appeared beside the house. She saw Arian bowed over and Mira trembling with rage and fear inside the darkened house. The old woman drew from her pack a small pot holding a young and beautiful cedar tree.
"Look at this tree," she said to them both. "It is strong, its branches are wide, and it is able to give shade, protection and shelter from storms."
Then the old woman turned to Mira and said: "Mira, you are asking Arian to be your shield and yours alone. But to prove that he protects only you, you are demanding that he cut away all his roots in the earth, sever his family branches and burn down the forest he grew from."
The old woman took a pair of shears and pruned away, one after another, every root of the little tree, until nothing was left but a bare, trembling trunk. She placed it in Mira's hands. Within moments the branches drooped, the leaves yellowed and the tree collapsed, lifeless.
"Love is not a boycott, and devotion is not a demand to destroy another person's world," the old woman whispered to Mira, as tears of shock filled the woman's eyes. "A man whose roots you have cut away will not be able to stand in a storm and protect you. He will become a hollow shadow of himself. Whoever demands that a partner prove love through shunning, hatred and a rift with his family is not looking for a covenant – he is looking for a fellow prisoner in his own loneliness."
Mira looked at the dead trunk in her hands, and then raised her eyes to Arian. For the first time she saw not an "enemy" rebelling against her, but a loving man worn to nothing under the weight of her impossible tests.
Real security and real love are not built on the ruins of other bonds, but on the ability to let the one you love flourish whole – with all his roots and all his branches.