Dry grass and thorny tendrils crunched lightly as I walked into the stone-walled enclosure.  The bottoms of the walls were laden with moss and mud, and the tops were crowned with fiercely-thorned rose plants, tendrils streaming down the wall erratically.

It was a beautiful day that day - the sky billowing with magnificent grey clouds, the sun illuminating the edges of a choice few clouds...  The air was lightly endowed with fog, and the temperature was just teetering on the point between being pleasantly brisk and uncomfortably cold.  The sky seemed nearly ready to open up and unleash the downpour it was holding in.

I ventured a bit further in, passing the time-worn monuments and gravestones lining the walls as I walked.  Each possessed a great tale to tell - shipwreck victims, war veterans and casualties, victims of any myriad of past events, and even comparatively average people.  I did not yet feel like listening, though.

A bell let out a lurching toll off in the distance, and some thunder groaned out from the clouds.  I looked up and saw a single dark cloud creeping into the sky.  I hurried my pace a little, knowing that it was surely going to rain now.  I'd always loved the rain, but hated getting wet - a bit of an odd combination.

Moving onward, I finally reached the great oak in the distance, the thing that I had come here for.  The bell tolled once more, ringing its melodic groan into the surrounding area.  I gazed up into the great tree's branches, gripping the sky with their jagged, twisting paths.  The sight had always instilled a childlike sense of wonder and awe in me, and it did not fail to do so this time.

The bell tolled once more, and another dark cloud entered the sky, coupled with even more thunder rolling out from the heavens.  I sat among the myriad of twisted roots at the base of the tree and stared up into the wonderful grey sky again, as the bell pealed out once more.

A bolt of lightning streaked across the clouds as the wind began to pick up, moaning softly and lightly rustling the vicious plants lining the walls.  The branches of the great oak swayed lightly with this new force, and the rain began to fall as it always does, ever-so-lightly at first.

I continued gazing into the sky, watching more black clouds roll into my field of vision, listening to the soft rhythm of the ever-increasing rainfall.  Finished with getting wet, I moved myself into a hollow spot inside the tree and sat for a while in the darkness, considering life, past events, the future - little else than normal things.  Considering my fears and doubts, considering how to change myself to better serve others.  How excellent it would have been if I had a companion to connect with at that time and place; I did not though, so I found solace in this fact, that it was meant to be this way.

At this, I smiled and picked myself up off the ground and made my way home.