This is Deputy Digby Pancake.  First, is it exciting, or what?  We completed all 469 miles of the Blue Ridge Parkway!  Now.  Back to business.  I don’t know that that is.  When you don’t wear pants, it is hard to conduct business.

We are enjoying a little down time in Franklin, North Carolina.  You see, we may be done with the Blue Ridge Parkway.  But we have lots of work to do.  Like planning.  And sleeping.  And eating.  And planning again.  Yep.  Looks like we have to figure out our next adventure.  That is always a predicament. To figure out stuff in life, we have learned that you have to concentrate.  You have to stop paying attention to stuff you don’t need to.  But how can you do that?  I’ve got this. Once again, the places we end up traveling to always teach us something.

In Franklin, North Carolina, they have what they call a community garden.

Some of the spaces of land that they have fenced off in this garden I saw had pretty flowers.

Some spaces in the garden were empty.

Some had vegetables.  Some had weeds.  The weeds had overgrown the vegetables once planted there. I sensed that this was kind of like how persons take care of themselves.

Persons? There is so much in life that can feed us.  We can choose to feed our minds and hearts with good things. Like pancakes. Or we can choose to feed our minds and our hearts with the bad.  Once we let the bad take over, it is hard to turn that around.  No one can grow when they are being pushed down.  No flower can grow if the weeds take over.

Sometimes, weeds in life are hard to spot.  They can look like a flower on the outside. Sometimes, they even have a flower.

Gardeners have a lot of arguing about what makes a weed and what makes a flower.  Most agree that if the plant wasn’t grown there in that area to begin with, and it kind of invades, that makes it a weed.  And I like that argument.  Because if persons could weed out the bad things that they didn’t know when they were younger, and what made them who they were to begin with, I think that there would be a lot more flowers in the gardens.  That is what would grow.  I can help fertilize if necessary.

I was pretty sure that a lesson was to be learned from this weed filled garden besides the fact that there would be nothing better than a pancake garden.  I have suggested that before.  Farmer Pancake has quite a ring to it, don’t you think?

I think the lesson is that we have to make sure what we are taking in our ears, and our eyes and our hearts is important.  You have to know that everything that goes in will make you grow in a good way or a bad way.  Recognize the weeds in your life and get them out before they take over.  You are a flower.  Remember how you can grow.  Remember how much you have grown.  Don’t let things in the world that you can’t control bring you down.  Open up like a flower to the good things. They are still there.

Don’t wait to appreciate the flowers in life or the ones you can pick flowers for.  Even if that person is you. You see, the prettiest things don’t last forever.

We have some pretty neat things we are going to explore in the next couple of weeks! The Biltmore, more hikes and waterfalls, and mountain towns and villages!  Let’s get this garden of fun growing!

-Deputy Digby Pancake

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