This is Digby Pancake. When was the last time that something or someone made you stop in your tracks?

Maybe you were busy and working or thinking. Your day was going like normal and you weren’t giving much thought except for getting things done. But then. Something made you stop. That’s what happened to us yesterday when we were on our way home from a hike.

You see, we’ve been to this hiking place many times.

And we have seen the little lamb by the road on the way there many times. But Girl Person says we always have something to do or somewhere else to go. She said it’s not important to stop for the lamb. Until yesterday.

Girl Person told us to sit tight. She was going to get out of the car and look at something. All I saw was a little, concrete lamb. A lonely lamb. Sure. We had passed by it many times before. So why were we stopping now?

Girl Person said that sometimes you have to acknowledge a little lamb by the side of the road. Because the little lamb has been there many years. Sitting. Looking. Standing for life loss. We don’t know your story, Baby Cordy. But that doesn’t mean it’s not important to us.

I was sad to look at the little lamb and I didn’t understand why Girl Person would want to make herself sad if she didn’t have to stop. She said sometimes it’s not about us. Sometimes, feeling means acknowledging. Acknowledging means respect. Respect is what everyone deserves. No matter how much time has passed.

Never get so caught up in day to day life that respect is lost. Time may go on. But lives lost, no matter today or a hundred years ago mattered. They were once and still are important.

One of the hardest things for me to accept is that no matter who passes away, the world seems to go on.

How does it do that…how does the world just go on?

A grave stone is by someone’s child. Someone’s mother. Someone’s father. Someone’s friend. Someone’s everything.

Don’t overlook a chance to pause and reflect.

What can you learn when you stop? You won’t know unless you do.

–Digby Pancake