This is Digby Pancake.  What do you use water for everyday?

 

Pretty much everyday, Brickle and I have to get a bath. We have to get the bugs off of us. And the dirt. And the mud.  And…all the other stuff.

 

But yesterday when we went on a hike in that Alabama place, the water there was waiting for us.  It was falling and making beautiful sounds.  The persons thought that seeing the waterfall and the creeks and the river would cheer me up.

 

 And they would do anything to cheer me up.  

I wasn’t feeling the best I have every felt.  I seem to walk slower and more carefully. Truth be told, sometimes, I even slip and I fall.  But I want to keep trying.  I want to keep going.  Hiking is my purpose.  Hiking is my work.  Hiking makes our family feel better and we like to go to new places together.  When I can’t go, well, I don’t feel like I have a purpose.  And it makes me sad.

 

So even though it was raining when we got up in the morning, we didn’t care.  We got in the Big Cherry Truck and we started driving.  It took us a little while to get there.  But every mile was worth it.  The important and real things in life are always…always…worth it.

 

And when we arrived and I heard the water, it gave me a good feeling.  A purposeful feeling.  We all need a purpose, don’t we?

We walked slow on all of the rocks.  But when we finally got to the water, I couldn’t get down by myself. Boy Person had to help me.  And I let him.  Because he needed a purpose too.

 

As we were walking back on the trail, it started raining.  Raining and raining and raining.  We sure were not appreciating all of that water falling on us! But Boy Person said, isn’t it funny that we drove miles and hiked to see water falling in one place, but we didn’t want it falling on our heads!  

 

What is the water’s purpose to me?  Not only to clean the earth and to clean us, but to make us feel refreshed, relaxed and alive.  Do we view the gifts in our life like water?  Or do we question why they appear when they do?

 

Do we expect things to always go perfectly on our schedule?  We are all guilty of that.  The trick to being happy is seeing a purpose in every gift we are given when it appears, not when we expect it to.  Find your purpose by seeing the purpose in all of the blessings that life has to offer.

-Digby Pancake