This is Deputy Digby Pancake.  Sometimes you have to hunt for the truth.  Sometimes you have to plant the truth.  Sometimes you have to dig up the truth.

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Time to eat all your words
Swallow your pride
Open your eyes

If there was ever a time that we needed to get lost in the forest, well, it is now.  The persons’ thoughts are overwhelming them.  And getting back on the road is proving to be a bit, well, hard.  The journey back to that Florida place seems so long.  Why is it so far away from this California place?  No one seems to have the answer to this question.  Not even Sheriff Brickle.

So yesterday, we headed to a place called Sequoia National Park.

When you go into forest, and really are still, if only for a moment, it has a way of bringing you down to earth.  It has a way of humbling you.  The trees are there to listen, and they do that at first.  But then, they speak to you as you listen to them. 

As we stood underneath the largest trees in the world, which we had heard about all of our lives, they were even more special than we could have imagined. Their bark is sometimes three feet thick which is way thicker than even my bark.  And that is thick.

But even more impressive than their size and their beauty is their talent of calming wisdom that tells you all you need to hear.

Sowing the seeds of love, sowing the seeds
Sowing the seeds of love

For each one of us, what we need to hear is different.  For Sheriff Brickle, he needs to hear he is handsome. For me, I just need to hear the time dinner will be served.  But for the persons, they needed to hear that everything would be ok for us in the end when we went to the forest yesterday.  You see, they feel like they have planted seeds all over the place, and nothing has grown.  They feel like maybe it is time to stop planting anything at all.  They are tired.

Open hearts, feel about it
Open minds, think about it
Everyone, read about it
Everyone, scream about it

But as we stood underneath the trees, they heard it.  Because they were listening.

Their problems were quite small.  These trees had heard many problems of the thousands of years it had taken them to grow.  They didn’t reach these heights overnight.  And it takes just the right conditions for them to even grow in the first place.  Only a tiny fraction of one percent of sequoia seeds ever grow.  At all.  That is what Girl Person told me.  And yet, when they do grow, they become the largest trees.  In the world!

Their seeds are worth planting.  Our seeds are worth planting.  Your seeds are worth planting, whatever it is that you are trying to grow.

It is against all odds that these sequoia trees make it and survive for thousands of years.  And for us, even though we feel like this journey is never ending, the trees told us that we still have some life left to give.  We still have some animals to fight for.  We still have to show people that two dogs can make a difference.

Time to eat all your words (high time we made a stand and shook up the view of the common man)
Swallow your pride (and the love train rides from coast to coast)

As we left the forest with all of the wisdom from the trees that we needed, we came back to camp to find a little bird.  The campground persons were trying to save it, and as they found other birds who were shot all around him, this little bird was still alive.  He somehow had survived. He had made it against all odds.  Just like the sequoia trees.

They were taking care of him, and talking to him, and we were all hoping for him.  All of a sudden, he opened his eyes and started to fly, if just a little bit.

In just a few hours, he was ok.  How had he had the strength to recover, despite all that had happened around him?  Because he wanted to live.  And once again, the persons knew that all they needed to hear this day was spoke to them…by the trees…by the bird.  If they wanted to be happy, it was up to them to keep planting seeds until something grew.  They couldn’t sit back and hope for good things to happen.  They had to water what they needed to water, feed what they needed to feed, and yes, hope.  Because without hope, nothing will grow.  Hope is something we have to hold onto and put on our dreams.

Open hearts, feel about it
Open minds, think about it 

As we went to bed last, night, Girl Person thought about the day, and she looked over at something by her bedside that for her, was a symbol of what would keep her going.  Where we land is where we will plant…our tree.  Our sequoia tree.

This sequoia tree may take years to grow, but it took years for us to grow too. And where it is planted will prove to be where our home is and where our hopes will lead us.  And for birds that fly to its branches, we hope that they will feel just as comforted as we have this week by the sequoias.  Find your tree today.  Find your hope today.  And plant and sow your seeds.

-Deputy Digby Pancake

Have you thought about bringing your dog to Sequoia National Park? Here are some tips!

 

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