Tiny Elven Morningsong
Written February 2003.

Once upon a time, there was a tiny little elf who sat high up in a tree and sang a song to the sun as the first faint traces of light became discernable at the horizon ,and she never stopped singing until the golden disc was fully visible in the sky. One day, a human chanced by on the ground below and heard her singing, and he stopped and looked up on her and asked, "Little elf, why do you sit up in the tree and sing?"

"Because it is the coming of dawn," she replied, giggling.

"Is that any kind of reason?", the human frowned. "What makes this dawn so special that it deserves a song?"

"It alone is not special," she answered with a somewhat puzzled look on her face. "That the sun rises and falls everyday is special. I sing every morning - it's not my fault that you have never heard me sing before, is it?"

And as the sun had risen fully, she stopped singing and climbed nimbly down to the human below.

"Don't you like my song?" she asked, "since you frown so deeply"

"Not at all", the human sighed. "It was very beautiful. In fact it was so pretty that I think it was a waste of talent to squander it on something as trivial and pointless as the sun going up. It happens everyday."

The little elf looked at the human shaking her head slightly. "No more beautiful and precious thing is there than the coming of dawn. It is a promise by the greater powers to me - and to us all - about a brand new day. Imagine the endless gifts we can receive this very day. And it begins at dawn."

"It's a day, just a day", the human said, "like any other day - there's nothing special about it - just a day like all others - or do you possess some magic clearvoyance that can predict that something special that will happen today?"

"No, of course not", the tiny little elf looked in amazement at the human who seemingly wouldn't understand what she said. "I cannot see what will happen. If I could, then there would be less wonder, wouldn't it? I sing to the possibilities, the promise of a brand new day, fresh like a green leaf during early springtime."

"Hah", the human sneered, "so it's all wishful thinking. Very well, may your song fulfil those promises, good day to you tiny little elf", and he started to walk away.

"You still don't understand, do you?" and now the little elf frowned as well. "I don't wish for anything in particular, I don't pray for fortune or sun or good growth or anything else, I simply sang praise to the promise. We can do whatever we like with that promise, we can fill it with love or with hate, we can fill it with friendship or with despise, we can fill it with serenity or with chaos - but the choice is all ours, all given to us, this hour of the day"

The human stopped and turn around and sighed. "And then what?"

"Then what? Isn't that enough? More than enough?"

"I meant then what as in then what next? How do all days end, tiny little elf? I tell you how, they end in dusk and then the night falls"

"But after that night another day will come and then another and another for as long as the world stands"

The human laughed sarcastically. "You elves that live for a thousand years and more can afford such an eternal perspective, we humans will grow old before too long, and then our night will fall, an eternal night without dawn…"

"The day has as many hours for me as it has for you, human, and I know that you humans are normally restless and sometimes manages to accomplish in a week what we elves do in a year, I do not fully understand the hurry you have and the fire that seems to burn within your heart, but in one day, one single day, we all have as many possibilities during that day…"

The human interrupted her. "… and then the day ends, and that is it. And one evening the night will become the eternal one and it will all end."

"The days never end", she giggle. "They were here before you and I were born and the dawns will continue to come long after you and me are gone. They will never end, never, surely you don't think all the world was made for you alone? We live here for the time we have been granted and we should make the most of it everyday, and then we can rest peacefully knowing that no matter if you or I are here to see it, another day will come, and that day will hold as much promise as this one."

"Elven foolishness", the human sneered again and once more he turned and walked away on his path.