The first thing he ever experienced in this world was the careful ways of her touch.   “I felt her hands upon my spine. Stretching and strengthening it until it was mine. A caress as she smoothed the skin of my arm. I had one on the right, and with a gentle squeeze, a second had been placed on the left.” He gestured to his now functioning left arm as he spoke.   “My heart had been shaped with love before my eyes. A mixture of earth, flowers, and water moulded with such care that when I slow down, I can still feel her there.” As the little creature recalled such feelings, listening closely to the subtle thumps of his heart, his eyes fell and his voice softened. “She shaped it, then placed it inside my chest.” His twig-like hands fell upon his breast, and his eyes closed for a moment or two.   *Chirp* *Chirp*   He smiled at the sudden sound from his company. With a deep breath and a glint in his eye, he continued.   “My head, she had said, was screwed on just right, and she adorned it with an acorn cap.” He pulled it off his head and displayed it proudly. “And with that, I was born into a world full of wonder, a world I knew not.” He cleared his throat, placing his cap back upon his head.   “In a flash I was left alone with a blue round parting gift that she placed in my outstretched hand.” He gave a half-hearted smile to his attentive admirer. “Then you appeared before me in a second flash. A sweet smell filled the space around us as you gobbled my gift right out of my hand, and the world flashed for a third time.” He pondered these memories.   *Chirp   Turning, he looked out of the hole in the tree from where he now sat. Watching the orange glow fade off in the distance. “Shaped and shifted from the earth, my new eyes can now see the wonderful beauty that is what made me.” He turned back to the bird nestled in their nest with a fresh smile on his dirt-smeared face.   “Took me quite some time to climb up after you.” He yawned deeply, then continued. “It was a pleasure, and I thank you for your time. I just needed to see where she had put me, and from your home, I know now it doesn’t matter which way I go. There is so much to see; that must be why she created me.   The second thing he ever experienced was the simple act of sharing. A moment, a berry, a story. The little creature departed the nest the next morning. The last thing he experienced at the place of his creation was a bump on his knee when, excitedly so, he jumped from the roots of the tree. His new world now layed out before him; he stood up, brushed himself off, and smiled with glee.