Learning to believe in the specialness in the world can be fun as well as for free coming from a tree.

"Our neighborhood has a special tree", Rosalie told her class friends. "What makes it special"? asked Freddie.

A happy grin spread across Rosalie's face as she thought: "when they see the tree, they'll believe me and I'll feel special." Rosalie answered Freddie, "when we first moved here, I saw this tree while I walked my puppy Flip."

Buddy the playground bully yelled, "What's special about the tree?" Rosalie replied, "It's not a pretty tree, but it is special". Rosalie lowered her head and whispered, "I was looking at this tree, when suddenly, I could feel the tree rumble."

"What did you do?" asked quiet little Penny. All eyes were on Rosalie as she spoke, "I turned around and the tree seemed to smile at me and say, "I am a special tree."

I pretended to ignore the tree but it said, "Rosalie, I am lonely too." The tree then begged me saying, "Please tell me your secrets." "I told the tree a secret," Rosalie said smiling right at Penny. "I felt the tree thanking me. It said 'thanks Rosalie, now I'm not so lonely anymore, I've grown a new branch as a trade for your secret."

The children's eyes were wide now as Rosalie continued, "the more secrets the tree hears, the more it will grow."

"I felt great after telling the tree my secret," whispered Rosalie to her friends. Rosalie suggested to her friends, "so, why don't you tell your secrets and see how big the tree grows?" Suddenly the recess bell rang. Rosalie thanked her new friends for listening to her adventure. She added, "the tree is in the church playground where mommy and daddy tell their secrets too."

Each child who visited the tree from then on felt better after telling the tree their secrets. The story spread from child to child and pretty soon from town to town. The tree grew new branches with each new secret and soon it was the biggest 'special tree' in Texas.

Don't you want to visit the 'special tree' and tell it your secret? If so, just visit my profile, get my email and send me a secret I promise to tell no one else...
Written in 1998 by Toria and copyrighted in 2001

How it changed my life:
It got me in touch with Mother Nature through being willing to listen to people and keep their secrets. It is not easy ~~~ it is important for being healthy.