The Girl and the Tree and Her Life After

 Once upon a time there was a girl. She was the kind to throw her arms to the wind and dance barefoot in the rain. Naturally, she was the kind to wander. And once, when she wandered, she found herself in an enchanted wood.

    It took no more than a moment for her to find a tree she liked. As usual, she asked the tree a question. 

    'Tree, would you tell me a secret?' the girl asked.

    Quite unusually, the tree whispered an answer.

    The girl thought about the tree's response all the rest of the day.

    She thought about it all the rest of the week, all the rest of the year, and for the many years that came after.

    She thought about it as she lay down on her last day, in her last hour, even her last minute.

    Her life had been spent thinking. And it was not a waste.

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