I sat with the children in a circle and listened as she began to talk quietly.

"I was thinking about something I wanted to tell you--about the first time I realized that both Tree and I had grown up. He had shot up past me a number of years before and his branches were wonderfully thick and strong. Now the red crossbills hung upside down on his branches and pecked at his cones and he offered shelter to the many birds--robins, sparrows, purple finches, chickadees, and of course the myrtle warblers. Tree welcomed them all."

As she spoke, she was accompanied by various trillings and warblings, as if the birds were responding to a roll call. Although she was looking directly at the children, she seemed very far away.

"I remember our conversation very well. I was leaning against his trunk, telling him how Sister Frances kept urging me to think about going out into the world, about maybe becoming a horticulturist or a teacher. I knew she wanted what was best for me but I also knew what would make me happy.

"I knew that I loved it here, listening to the birds calling to one another and to the sound of the wind tickling the tops of the trees, loved watching the changing colors of the landscape, the hills going from green to brown to gray, then to green again. And where would I ever hear anything as beautiful as the Sisters singing at vespers?

"I'd read so many stories about people searching for faith, for a reason to live and I'd found that right here," continued Sister Anthony. "Every day I wake up and look out my window and I feel excited. I've never stopped asking: `What lies out there for me today?'"

She smiled at the children, full of warmth and tenderness. "I've found all of you here. It's been such a wonderful thing for me to watch you learn and grow."

She paused, remembering her story.

"I curled up in Tree's shade that day, as I have so many times in my life, and as I was dropping off to sleep I remember saying to him, `How lucky I am to have you.'"