This is Digby Pancake. Living is all around us. Yes. I said that right. There are squirrels living. There are bugs living. There are birds living. There are snails living.

And one snail was in our campsite this weekend. His name? I’m glad you asked. It is Stumpy The Snail.

We had to move camp three times in three days. Sure did. The moving wasn’t without drama when we couldn’t get the Big Blue Treat Wagon RV out of the middle of the road.

But we wish we would have known that meeting Stumpy The Snail would have all been worth all the trouble.

When we got to campsite 21 in this Vogel State Park, Georgia place, Girl Person saw him right away. Stumpy The Snail was hanging out on top of a stump! He was beautiful. Girl Person told us that the rings on his shell told how old he was. And he has been here for awhile it seemed.

But as Girl Person always does, she wondered if Stumpy The Snail had had a good meal in awhile. So she looked up what Stumpy liked, and she gave him some chopped tomatoes. Organic, obviously.

Boy Person remarked she had fed him too much, but in just awhile, he took back his words when Stumpy ate almost all of the organic tomatoes! He must have been as hungry as me at 4:55 p.m.

We watched Stumpy all day. Most would not think watching a snail would be fun. But life doesn’t always have to be fast. Sometimes you have to enjoy a little slow dance.

We took the time to watch Stumpy because we wanted to learn more about him.

We learned how he sees others with his eyes.

We learned how he eats.

We learned snails know others by smell. I can only guess that he knew me by the smell of pancakes, Brickle by the smell of meanness, Boy Person by the smell of diesel trying to fix the RV, and Girl Person by the smell of hope. Because she was secretly hoping we could keep Stumpy in the RV too. We could make him little hats and little suitcases and clothes and a little RV. He could go traveling with us and see places and do things. Oh, that would be the life for Stumpy The Snail! Or would it?

As Girl Person watched Stumpy, she began to see his routine. He liked one part of the stump during the day and another part of the stump at night.

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And as she figured out his age of about 6, seems like he had been there for a long time. He didn’t want to travel.

He didn’t want to go with us. He didn’t want to do what we wanted him to want to do.

Not everyone is the same. Some like to travel. Some do not.

But we can’t try and make ourselves happy or find our worthiness at the expense of someone else. Leaving Stumpy The Snail on his stump to live his best life may have made us sad, because we may never see him again.

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But Stumpy’s life is just that. Stumpy’s. Thinking that another life, even if it’s a snail or a bird or a bug is less worthy of happiness than our own is wrong. Take the time to watch lives being lived around you.

We all contribute to each other’s lives…but only if we are living our own. Slow down. Enjoy your own life. Notice others living their happy. Don’t take life so seriously.

Savor life like Stumpy The Snail.

–Digby Pancake

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