Today would have been my dads birthday. He died at 61, over a decade ago. My sister reminded me of this two minutes before I took the stage in front of 250 elementary school kids this morning to read the story of The Forever Tree (the story of him, and the grand daughter he would never meet in the real world. (And the treehouse that will be a constant reminder).If even one of these kids gets the tiniest bit of inspiration from this and takes an interest in becoming a preservationist, a caregiver or animal activitst - then taking 2 hours away from the office was more than worth it.The kids asked some hard questions:What happened to the grandfather? I had to explain that before he left us, he grew five mighty oaks out of little acorn kids. And then he became a star to watch over us - like we see in the last page of the book.Kids are more intuitive than we give them credit for. They understand love and loss and hope. Their ability to have empathy and share compassion blows my mind.The last question of the morning was from a five year old: How old was the grandfather when he turned into that star? So because an adult cannot cry in front of 250 grade schoolers, I just read my sisters text shed sent me an hour before. Happy birthday TomAnd then asked the kids if they wanted to wish him a happy birthday -They all screamed it at the top of their lungs - Im sure he heard it loud and clear. Little acorns grow into big oaks.Lets all nurture the little acorns in our lives.