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Every year on my birthday, from the time I turned 12, a white gardenia (栀子花) was sent to my house. No card came with it. Calls to the flower shops were not helpful at all. After a while I stopped trying to find out the sender's name and I was just very pleased with the beautiful white flower in soft pink paper. But I never stopped imagining who the giver might be. Some of my happiest moments were spent daydreaming about the sender. My mother encouraged this imagination. She'd ask me if there was someone to whom I had done a special kindness. Perhaps it was the old man who I looked after when he was ill.  As a girl, I had more fun imagining that it might be a boy.

    One month before my graduation, my father died. I felt very sad and didn't want to go to the coming graduation dance at all. And I didn't care whether I had a new dress or not. But my mother, in her own sadness, would not let me miss any of those things. She wanted her children to feel loved and lovable. In fact, my mother wanted her children to see themselves much like the gardenia—lovely, strong and perfect with perhaps a bit of mystery.

    My mother died ten days after I was married. I was 22. That was the year the gardenia stopped coming.

    John is five years old now. He is a good boy. He is very clever and can read very well. But he can't tell the right time by clock. He doesn't say eight o'clock in the morning, twelve o'clock or four o'clock in the afternoon. He always says "breakfast time" for eight o'clock, "lunch time" for twelve o'clock and "tea-time" for four o'clock in the afternoon. His mother wants to teach him to know the time by clock.

    "Can you count, John?" his mother asks him. "Yes. Let me count for you. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, and twelve..." "That's good, John. Now let me tell you to say the time. Now, look! I put the long hand on twelve and the short hand on one. That is one o'clock. If I put the short on two, that's two o'clock. Do you know?"

    "Yes, I do." John tells his mother. "Good. If I put the short hand on four, what's that?" his mother asks and really puts the short one on four. "Tea-time, Mum. And I am hungry."

    Hannah walked alone in the woods and felt sad . She was nine years old but she had already seen many changes in her short life. They weren't all bad things, some were pretty wonderful. Hannah loved having her new little sister and her stepmother ,Emma, was just lovely. She had to start at another school soon, but she was always able to make friends. Even so, her secret self wished that things didn't have to change at all.

    " Why do people have to leave, families move, a little girl grows up?”These thoughts made her feel worried .

    Hannah kicked a stone on the path and it hit a huge oak tree. She walked nearer to the tree. "Am I dreaming ?” Hannah rubbed her eyes. The tree was moving! Its big branches were reaching out to her. Soon, she was encircled by branches and leaves. Then she became one with the tree. Her brown hair grew longer and longer, as it curled around the leaves. Her body grew lean and strong and it mixed with the outer covering of tree until they shared one trunk. Her arms and legs reached out finger and higher. Finally, Hannah's spirit softly settled into its new home and she became a forest goddess.

    Hannah was now part of the woodland. Seasons changed and brought wonder and warmth to her. Winter was quiet and peaceful. In the springtime, she breathed in the rich smell of the soil and enjoyed the green new life in the forest. Her favorite season was autumn. Her leaves became magnificent colors and she loved to watch them dancing in wind.

    Hannah observed how things didn't stay the same in nature's world. She saw young animals born and the spirit of old creatures pass on. Within the tree, she spent hours watching the clouds move across the sky. Sometimes it was fair, and sometimes heavy and gray .In the evening she watched the stars twinkle against the night sky. As part of the forest, Hannah came to love the changing world around her.

    Suddenly, a nut hit her head. A squirrel hid from the tree quickly. Oh , she realized herself  napping under the oak tree. What a wonderful dream! Hannah learned her cheek against the bark and gave thanks for their time together. Then she went back home, thinking and smiling.……