Part 7

So now that you’re back it’s time to show those gifts you’ve carried all the way for Mouse on his journey to the old tree.

The sounds at the bridge. The beautiful things he’d seen on his journey. The bark rubbings. The animal prints. You can do the same thing. You’ve worked hard too. This is your chance to show the tree what you’ve found on your journey.

The old tree, each time a gift was shown, looked a little brighter. New leaves began to appear on her bare branches. Small buds unfurled.

“You see,” Mouse told her, “you are so very important. Everyone remembers you. You are connected to everything.”

The old tree seemed proud. She stood a little straighter, a little stronger.

Then, Mouse turned to the other animals. He normally didn’t like speaking in public, but he felt that he done so well, he deserved just a little bit more of their attention. He raised his very small voice.

“Now,” he said, “it is time for all of us to choose a new name for the old tree. I have some ideas, but everyone’s thoughts will be heard. We will choose together, and ask the old tree which she likes, and then that shall be her name forevermore. And this time, we will cherish her name, and pass it down to our children and our children’s children, and it shall never be forgotten.”

Now I don’t know which name Mouse and the other animals chose. But you might have an idea of your own. Think of it – or say it out loud now! Share it with the tree. She loves hearing her new name.

And so things in the forest were well again, and Mouse went about his mouse-business, in his own small patch of land. But sometimes he would come to the Green Man, just as you’re standing with the Green Man, and the Green Man would always smile at him, and thank him for what he had done to save the old tree and the forest. For as the Green Man always said,

“It doesn’t matter how small you are, you can always make things better.”