Once upon a time there was a little girl named Meagan. She lived with her mommy and daddy, her big brother Corwin and her beautiful cat named Starweaver.
One day in spring Meagan was walking with her father in the woods behind their house. He was showing her some of the plants that lived in the woods. Michael smiled down at Meagan, "Well, soon it will be Ostara Meagan. We will be planting seeds to celebrate. Do you know what kind of seeds you want to plant for the harvest in the fall?" Meagan thought hard. She knew that Ostara was one of the holidays when pagans ask the gods to make the fields fertile so that there would be food for winter. "I like flowers, daddy," she said, "but I wish that I could plant niceness". Her daddy looked confused, "What do you mean?"
"Well," said Meagan, "Sometimes I have a hard time being nice to one of the boys at my school. He's really mean to everyone. I don't like being around him. I know that I should be nice to him even when he's mean to me but it's really, really hard to do. That's why I wish that I could plant some niceness."
"Hmmm," said Michael, "Do you want niceness for him so that he won't be so mean, or niceness for you so that you can be nice to him even when you don't feel like it?" Meagan stopped to pick up Starweaver who was rubbing her legs, "I'd like him to be nice to me, but if he won't then I guess that I need some more niceness for me to give to him." Michael nodded," I see. Well, it wouldn't be right to work magic on him without asking him first." Meagan gasped, "I couldn't do that!"
"No," said Michael, "but there's no reason that you can't plant some niceness for yourself." They turned a corner on the path and started back toward their house. Just then, Meagan's big brother Corwin came racing toward them. "Hey!," he shouted, "Mom's got the eggs to dye for Ostara!" Meagan clapped her hands in glee and jumped up and down.
"Run ahead," said her daddy, "Just make sure you save some for me." Meagan and Corwin ran back to the house. They slowed down when they got to the door. It was a safety rule in their family not to run indoors unless it was an emergency. Meagan didn't think that her mother Elizabeth would think that eggs were an emergency.
When Meagan got inside the kitchen she saw her best friend Cindy sitting at the table. Cindy's mom Anna was standing at the stove with Elizabeth. "Hi!," said Cindy, "My mom met your mom at the store and she said we could come over and make Easter eggs with you!"
Meagan slid into the chair next to Cindy. "Cool," she said, "but we're making Ostara eggs!"
"Meagan!", her mom turned around, "that's not very nice. You know that Cindy is Christian and not Pagan!" Anna turned with her, "Actually, we don't celebrate Easter as a religious holiday like some Christians do. For us, it's just the day when the Easter bunny comes! Here kids, we have special dyes made from herbs for you to use. You should put on these gloves first so that you don't dye your hands!" Meagan and Cindy quickly put on their gloves while Elizabeth and Anna set out the dye pots. There were all the colors of the rainbow. Meagan had learned a name that helped her remember the colors of the rainbow.
"Roy G. Biv," she told Cindy," that stands for red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet." "I know that," answered Cindy, "and I remember that you said red was for fire. Yellow is for air. Green is for earth. Blue is for water." Meagan smiled at her friend. They colored all the eggs and put them in special racks that Corwin had made for the eggs to dry.
Soon it was time for Cindy to go home. "Mom says I can come back on Easter and we'll have an egg hunt!" she told Meagan. "I'll ask my mom if you can spend the night before!" said Meagan. She gave Cindy a hug goodbye.
Meagan couldn't wait for the holidays. Soon it was time to celebrate Ostara. Her parents had explained that Ostara was also called the Spring Equinox. On the equinox the day was just as long as the night. They told her that even though the Christian church had taken a form of the name Ostara for their spring holiday, Easter was based on the Jewish holiday of Passover. Christ had been celebrating Passover when the bad people came to take him to jail.
The other members of the coven came to Meagan's house. She and Corwin helped to decorate the circle with flowers. Just before circle was going to start Michael took Meagan apart. "This is for you," he said, as he handed her a big seed that was colored bright pink.
"What is it?" asked Meagan. "Well, tonight we will all plant seeds to represent things in our lives that we want to grow over the summer. This is a seed to stand for niceness." Meagan hugged her daddy close. "Thank you" she said. She couldn't wait to plant her seed.
It took awhile for Meagan's seed to grow. Some days it was still hard for her to be nice to people who were mean to her. But thinking about her growing seed helped.
When Easter came, Cindy was sick and couldn't come over to Meagan's house. Meagan was really mad. Her parents reminded her that Cindy didn't want to be sick. Meagan stopped and thought about it. Her parents had sent her to her room because she had gotten so mad that she had been stomping all around the house. She thought about how she would feel if she were the one who had been sick.
Soon Elizabeth came to tell her she could come back out. "I'm sorry mommy," Meagan said, "Could we make a basket to take to Cindy so that she will feel better?" Elizabeth smiled, "I think that that would make her feel much better." She took Meagan downstairs and helped her make a basket for Cindy.
Later they took the basket to Cindy's house. Meagan couldn't go in because Elizabeth and Anna didn't want her to get whatever Cindy had. She stood in the yard and waved up at Cindy's window. Elizabeth came back out, "Cindy said to tell you thank you for the basket. It really made her feel much better. It was very nice of you to think of doing that for her. Especially when you were so mad about her not being able to come over today."
Meagan stopped at the car, "I guess that my niceness seed is growing." Elizabeth smiled, "I guess that it is."
Later that night Meagan lay in her bed with Starweaver curled up beside her. She was still a little sad that Cindy could not come over to hunt eggs. But she felt proud that she had thought of doing something that made Cindy feel better. Her niceness seed was really growing big. All in all, she thought, it had been a good day.
