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Beginning of Mishan's Garden
Long ago, in the Village Above the White Clouds, lived Mishan, daughter of the innkeeper.
On the morning she was born, a pure white songbird sang a song that was so beautiful everyone said that for a moment Heaven and Earth seemed as one.
As she grew up, Mishan helped her father take care of the inn.
Every day she heard the villagers complain, “We live in a village where it is so cold nothing ever grows!”
Others agreed. “Yes, it is a place where no one belongs.”
Each night, Mishan and her father would sit before the fire.
One evening, her father said, “Mishan, some day a beautiful garden will grow behind the Inn. A garden more beautiful than anyone has ever seen. It will be a garden of hopes and dreams.”
“But Father,” Mishan replied, “everyone says it is far too cold for anything to grow, and that nothing good could ever come from our village.”
Taking her tiny hands, he said, “I know what appears to be. But always remember, Mishan, things are not always what they seem!”
