Sia
Legacy Name: Sia

Everyone is quite aware of Mother Nature. She goes by various other names such as Mother Earth, Mother Gaia or Jord.

She is viewed as kind and nurturing on one side, and merciless and destructive on another - the giver and taker of life. The ultimate balance.

Believe it or not, there was once a time when Humans and Mother Nature were on the same side. There was perfect harmony in the Circle of Life. The humans gave as much as they took from Mother's abundance.

They planted seedlings from the fruits they had plucked. They provided shelter for a helpless injured doe when they went hunting for a wild stag. They maintained the balance and there was a plethora of everything. Life was beautiful, green and bright.

The Mother was happy with Humans. She provided for them: the purest waters from glaciers that she melted when they were thirsty, the warmest fires for cold nights when they shivered, the ripest fruits, the most beautiful flowers, the list went on...

In turn, the humans worshiped Mother Nature. They respected the Circle of Life. They understood the meaning of what it meant to give when they took. Mother brought them herbs for healing, precious rocks for mining. These methods passed on for generations.

One Summer, the Humans had a different request for Mother. They wanted her. Earth. Land.They wanted a large part of her, a hundred acres of bare, fertile land, to plant saplings that would one day grow into a large, bountiful forest.

Mother was more than happy to oblige. The Human in charge of this delightful project was a young lad, of twenty-five summers or so. He was the main reason Mother had agreed. He spent a good amount of time with Mother, explaining how he planned to expand the forests, to provide more shelter, to make mother rich and bountiful. He told her that this was her future, their future, together.

She was absolutely delighted with him. She spent hours, watching him at work, planting the saplings by hand, watering them. She felt closer to him because of the kindness in his heart and he felt the same way.

They fell in love and everything was wonderful. One summer later, they had me. They named me 'Sia' which means 'Helper'. My Mother wanted me to be a Helper, like my father, a kind, loving person who would help save the Earth and bring harmony to the Circle.

Two summers later, the saplings grew into trees. Everything grew faster, taller, brighter and riper since Mother was so happy. I was a toddler, by then, walking and talking. I had brown hair and brown eyes, just like my father. Mother always made a pink rose circlet for my hair and said that would be the only thing of hers that I would have.

One night, I woke to loud sounds of Humans shouting, thunderous noises and Mother screaming.

"MA!" I cried, rubbing my eyes and turning to her. She was sweating, tears rolling down her eyes, her face turning grotesque in anger and pain. I looked around for my father who was nowhere to be seen. I crawled out of the shelter to see the worst sight:

In the light of the rising sun, I saw something I had never seen before. There were large rigged hard plates - made of a material I had never seen before - that were being used to cut down all the trees. The humans were tirelessly pulling at the trees, having tied thick ropes around them, snapping and tearing away the branches till the sap bled out. They stepped on the fruits and nuts, having no care for them. What shocked me even more was that my father was among them, his face stone cold. It was the ultimate act of betrayal.

I could see that mother was in agony. Her wails echoed throughout the forest, but nobody cared. They did not mind as they destroyed a woodpecker's nest, or a squirrel's home. A lot of animals lost their homes that day, and a lot more vanished from sight. Mother had not moved. She just sat, staring ahead, her face emotionless.

"They will pay. He will pay." was all she had to say.

Over the next few weeks, Mother sent away all the remaining animals. The bees stopped pollinating, the flowers went underground and the birds flew south. The trees refused to bare fruits. The stream was stained with sap - the blood of the trees, made the water unfit for drinking. By then the humans had only cleared a quarter of the land they inhibited.

One morning, I woke up with a tingling feeling in my nose and toes. Mother was pacing, up and down, planning something. Her long green hair was trailing behind her on the ground.
"Mother, I feel different."
"Cold. You feel cold."
"Cold?"
"Come, child, look outside. But first, wear this!" Mother put me in a thick sack made of jute that had holes cut out for my neck, arms and legs. She tied smaller sacks on my hands and feet. The material made me itch but I knew better than to complain.

I went out of the shelter and saw a very strange sight! There was a huge white blanket over everything! There were no green or brown hues anywhere. It almost felt like we were not in a forest. The white blanket felt strange and alien to me. I did not like it at all. The bushes and tress that were around were stripped of their leaves and only the branches remained with long, sharp needles hanging from them. The water in the river was frozen still, not moving, as if it was just a picture.

"Mother! Where are all the colours? And why are the trees naked?"

Mother laughed, her voice sounding like a fresh stream. It had been long since I had heard that sound. That was all the explanation she had to offer.

In a week, the humans withdrew, they stopped cutting down the trees, they stopped everything. The cold, white blanket was hard for them to live in. They could not breathe or walk properly, and the blanket only got thicker. It came from the sky, like rain. I did not like it at all.

"Mother, why are we hurting them?"
"They hurt us, Sia. They betrayed our love and trust.
"Your father-"
I touched her arm and shook my head.
"Mother, you are here to nurture, not destroy."
"That is what I thought, too, my child. But humans are not like us. They are not grateful. They are brutal and beastly. They need to be put in to place. I call it Winter. Every year, we will have Winter. To remind them of how they once betrayed me. They will suffer and some will die. They will repent for their sins and return to me. Winter will be the season of remorse and regret. We cannot have any more eternal summers and springs. There will be a time when all the fruits, flowers and leaves cry and wither away into nothingness. And that will be the only warning they have before Winter comes."

I nodded sadly.

"But you are still my little Helper. You will be Queen of Spring, my daughter. After the cold winter dies, you will be the one to bring everything back to life. To restore the Circle. To bury the dead and return them to the Earth where they will be reborn as better, newer Life."

"Yes, Mother, I will be the one to clothe the trees, the one to make the bees share dust again so that pretty flowers of every colour will be born! I will invite the little animals and birds back out of their hidey-holes and make them chirp and squeal again!"

I was five summers old then. Here I am, twenty summers later, waiting for the last of Winter to die out so that I could bring the land back to life.

I touched an old, withered chrysanthemum plant at its root, dusting away the cold snow and burying my nails into the dark brown soil beneath. It was warm; it felt like home. I focused all my energy, transferring it on to the plant and slowly, it turned from brown to green. I felt the roots grow between my fingers, deep into the soil.

I am part-human but I would never harm my Mother. I wish to let all the humans know that every time they hurt Mother, they hurt themselves. They lose a part of them. Mother is eternal and omnipotent. But humans wither and die away with a flick of her finger. Still, Mother is kind and patient to the humans who try to take away from her. She still nurtures them, for three seasons. She believes that humans are never grateful to her. It is time to prove her wrong.

I beg you, human, to stop taking.

Stop taking away and never giving back.

It is up to you to restore the Circle of Life.