This is something I wrote in 2005. 

There is you, there is I, and then there is "us". "Us" is like a tree. It will go through phases. What begins as a seed gradually bursts out of the soil as a tender sprout. This sprout is new, eager to grow and thrive, but is yet unfamiliar with her environment. She doesn't know the cold, the wind, the sun, the rain, the snow...With time and nurture the sprout grows into a sapling. This sapling is now a little stronger. The rain will not wash her away, nor will the wind cause her limbs to bend. Although a little experienced now, she has yet to face the many other uncertainties of life.

Trials and tribulations will strengthen her. The wind will blow fiercely and she will withstand, her roots will cling more resolutely to the soil. In the winter, the cold will embrace her with frosty arms and she will not shiver, her trunk will only grow thicker.  In the spring she will give flowers of hope. And in the summer, these will turn into the sweet fruits of love.

Years will pass and her branches will expand. Each spring there will be more flowers and each summer more fruit. What is invisible to the eye is her roots which will expand far and wide and deep into the earth. These roots will prevent gales from displacing her and allow her to grapple with the floods that would wash her away.

Her trunk will be a collection of memories, a book of wisdom.

And each year she bears the seeds for a forest ... because life is eternal ...