'The Girl with Nine Toes - A Story about Personal Growth' is a parable of our modern times. It is the voice of an old world talking to our new world. Like all parables, whether from the Christian gospels or other of the world's great religions, the message is timeless. The story form is deliberate. A parable is not telling you what to think but rather to stir the imagination to know how to think. 'The Girl with Nine Toes' is a story from an even more ancient world - the aboriginal tradition, the native peoples, not just in Australia as told here but from the First Nations everywhere. These teachers are telling us something about our own survival - but crucially also theirs. Listen well and you shall hear. Hear well and you shall act. Part of the foreword, written by Tony Long.