Explanation

"Please sit down and listen to me," said her father. Reluctantly, Meredith sat down on the grassy knoll.

"I know how hard it is to understand," said her father, "but what you have just witnessed is part of a process that is destined to go on until we can bring our people of the Fourth World to wake up and see what they are doing to themselves, to our fellow creatures and to the earth. I swear I would not willingly allow your mother to be hurt, but she herself has made this choice to try to awaken people and to try to save them from themselves. She must go on though it costs her much pain. And so must I. My task is always to be ready to bring her help and comfort after she has been trampled and abused by the mindless gray people, who are blinded by stupidity and greed. One day they will understand." He glanced at his beloved wife.

"It is true," said her mother, struggling painfully to sit up. "I did choose this task."

A Stand-in

"I knew when I answered this call, that I would suffer," her mother said, smiling. "I wear the mantle of Mother Earth. I am her personification, and in her guise, I take on the sins of the world. The earth is being trampled and abused, poisoned and ruined every day, and so the same must happen to me until people see what they are doing, understand the danger of pollution and overpopulation, and see how the earth is dying. And so this drama is acted out every day on my body, and every day I recover and am restored by the healing warmth and light of the sun, which your father brings me. I am strong, like the earth, though so wounded."

"Your mother is doing a great service to all life," said her father, looking into his daughter's eyes. Meredith saw the glint of blue steel that had always made her trust him.

"Her gift is greater than you can ever imagine," he went on. "By sacrificing herself in this way, your mother brings healing energies which restore life and mend the broken, the injured and the poisoned fabric of the earth. She is helping us to buy time, until we humans can find a cure for our own madness."

Longing for His Coming

"Your father suffers greatly too," said Meredith's mother. "He cannot bear to see me hurt, and yet he must endure it. His task, and his power, is to bring new life and healing when the gray people have exhausted their blind advance over the green earth.  

"Then he drives them away and comes to me. Each day when they are trampling on me, I picture his face in my mind, knowing that when he comes, the pain will end, and he will bring me peace and joy."
She reached out her hand. Her husband took it and kissed it. He remained stroking her hand.

"I am really lucky to have parents like you," said Meredith, curling up against her mother's side as of old. Meredith noticed that her wounds no longer hurt and marveled at the power of the ancient leaves to bring healing. And she saw that her mother's wounds were healing also, for she seemed glad to have the comfort of her daughter beside her.

Filthy Air

"I don't know how long I will be able to come to visit your mother," said her father gravely. "Though the sun does not suffer the destruction which people bring, because it is too far away, the healing rays of the sun are being blocked by thick poisonous air, and the radiation that does filter through is trapped by dense atmosphere, overheating and injuring the earth. The situation is becoming critical. I must save your mother before it's too late."

"I have so misjudged you," said Meredith to her father. "You do suffer torment when Mother suffers, you suffer when you see the life on this planet dying. And I know that you have given up your life to try and change it." She put her arms around him and hugged him tightly.