From Little ThingsIt began like all things; small. Insignifcant. A tiny seed in the enormity of the world. As an acorn, it fell from its great mother to the ground. It lay there in dirt, amongst the leaves that had also fallen from above. Wind swept over it, stirring the settlement of organic matter as it blew past, on its way to other lands. A squirrel, searching for food to add to its winter store, found the small acorn on the forest oor. !hattering to itself in happiness, the squirrel picked up the acorn with its teeth and began scurrying home.It came to a stream that bubbled and gurgled as it ran. "here the squirrel pausedbeside the water, setting down the little acorn again as it bent for a drink. #ree, the acorn rolled down the bank towards to river, away from the tree climbing rodent as gravity pulled it down the slope. With a small plop it landed in the forest stream and was quickly swept away."he stream was full of life as it owed down towards its mouth. #ish, much biggerthan the tiny acorn, swam on all sides, scales glittering as they caught the sun. Acouple swam closer to the acorn to investigate the strange thing that had fallen into their watery home. $ut none lingered long, and the acorn was swept further and further downstream. A young girl, out with her father, mother and brother, was splashing in the shallows when the small acorn came oating by. %he caught it deftly, lifting it up out of the water.Look! she cried to her parents resting on the bank. Look what I found! &roudly she opened her hand to show her pri'e.Inside lay the acorn, that little acorn.Ha! said her brother scornfully. What are you going to do with that?!"he girl stuck her tongue out at him and didn(t reply. $ut inside she thought, I'll plant it, and it will grow tall and strong. It'll be much bigger than him.%o she put the acorn in her pocket to keep it safe, and she carried it away from the stream and the sparkling fsh. %he carried tit to her home."here she dug a small hole, )ust big enough for her tiny acorn, and buried it with soil."he acorn lay in the dark with all the creature of the earth. *ach day water wouldtrickle down through the dirt until at last, the small acorn grew.It sprouted little roots, and a green shoot rose through the soil towards the sun.It grew and grew, and fnally it broke through the surface and saw the sunlight again. "he wind blew gently around it. $y now it was no longer an acorn; it was asapling, ready to grow until it bore acorns of its own."he young girl fed it water every day, and gave it shelter from the cold bite of winter when the frst frosts came creeping through the garden. %he cared for the small sapling so it would not wither and die, for it was not yet strong.$ut it would be.+ears went by, and as the sapling thrived and became a young tree, so the girl also aged and matured. %he no longer needed to give the tree water, but would instead sit and read under its shade.And still the tree grew.Its trunk grew thicker as the years passed, rings of barking marking its age. ,orebranches sprouted from the trunk, so that during summer it would cast a large shadow on the ground beneath.As the trunk grew taller, and its branches longer, the young girl became a woman, married, and had children of her own."hey would play in and around the tree, shrieking with laughter as they ran in its shade, or climbing its strong branches. It was their playground, hide-out, and they loved it.#or many years the great oak stood frm, strong. "he wind whistled through its leaves, sometimes knocking down an acorn that might one day have its own adventure. +ears ew by, and the mother(s children grew into adults and had children of their own."he tree became a refuge for them, too."hen came a summer where the weather turned foul. %torms blew in, and the rain lashed against the oak. It branches bent from the wind, and many broke andfell. "he mother, now a grandmother, would watch an.iously as the weather raged outside.A particularly strong storm swept through, and the tree was struck."he grandmother mourned, for she still remembered the little acorn from the forest stream, but the tree it had become was now dead, and no longer safe for her grandchildren. /egretfully, she ordered it to be cut down.0owever, she couldn(t bear for it to be used to feed the fre, and so she had a rocking-chair made out of the wood. %he placed in on the veranda, overlooking the place where once the oak tree stood and was now only a stump.,any a day was spent sitting there, reading as she used to under the shade of her tree. 1ow, instead of reading alone, the grandmother would sit and read stories aloud, surrounded by her grandchildren. %ometimes she would sit with the youngest in her arms, rocking gently back and forth as the babe slept, ga'ingat the old oak stump and remembering."he grandmother now felt the years as they passed, felt time slowly gaining on her. 0er husband died and was buried in the earth, but still she would sit on the rocking-chair, sometimes now do'ing as her aging body grew even older. 0er children visited with their children more and more. ,any were now too old for stories around her chair, and preferred to sit inside than out in the hot air. "hegrandmother waved away their o2ers to move her rocking-chair into the coolness of the house, and stayed on the porch, with her view if the yard and tree stump.0er youngest granddaughter, a child barely si., came to her as she sat. 0er handwas tightly closed around something.randmamma? she asked. !an we plant it?%he opened her hand, and inside rested a small acorn.%uch a tiny thing, against the vastness of the world."he grandmother smiled and clasped her old hand over her granddaughter(s. "it down, dear, she said. Let me tell you a story.