This is Deputy Digby Pancake. It’s been said that eating pancakes is life, like the air that we breathe. Probably, I just say that. But it is true. In actuality, there are many things that make up a good life. And some we miss until they aren’t there anymore. Some we don’t even know that we would miss, because maybe we have forgotten about them. Maybe we are busy, too busy, eating all the pancakes. Maybe we are too busy working to make money to eat the pancakes. And maybe, you start to remember when you almost run over Airy the Air Plant on an early afternoon ride home, that life is more than being busy. And you stop. On a busy road. To save an air plant named Airy from being ran over. Because you should.
Girl Person says that air plants have always been plants that she liked. Her Pappy had many, saving them when they blew down from the trees in a Florida storm. He had one that grew so big he had to hold it up in the tree with a chain. He appreciated their simple beauty almost as much as Sheriff Brickle appreciates his.
So as we were driving home yesterday, and the persons were talking about our house or lack there of, and Memaw Macaw’s upcoming move and packing, I was only thinking about breakfast. But that is when Boy Person saw him. Airy the Air Plant was laying in the middle of the road. Blown down from the storm the day before, he was just laying there waiting to be ran over. He put it out of his mind I guess, but as the persons continued talking, Boy Person asked Girl Person if she had saw the air plant. She said no, and she knew what he was thinking. Boy Person said that no one was going to care about it and that it would get ran over. He asked Girl Person if he should drive back and get it. Of course, Girl Person told him. But he had to promise not to get ran over. Sheriff Brickle took out his arrest book and radar, and we were set.
As we pulled over and found Airy the Air Plant, Boy Person ran to get it with Girl Person wondering how we were collecting all of these new family members. How many more would we have to carry around? We have the little sequoia tree, the raven wind kite and now we had Airy. I made up my mind. We all had to stay together.
When we got to Memaw Macaw’s house, I found my spot in the sunshiney with Airy. The ants seemed to be trying to carry it away in this Florida place, so we moved it to a safer spot, gave it some water to recoup a little, and we all took a rest. But as we headed out on our evening hike, we met yet another good thing in our day that we had forgot about. We used to know him. Maybe you have known him too. Mr. Bob White.
We have heard a lot of different birds and sounds on this Adventure Of A Lifetime. Some feel scary, like maybe the vultures in the trees. Some feel unfamiliar, and we don’t recognize their sounds. But Mr. Bob White is a very familiar man of a bird. Calling, calling and making us stop to listen. But the fact is, we had stopped listening because he was so familiar.
For Mr. Bob White, who likes to say his name over and over again, all day long, I can only imagine that he is just as confident as Sheriff Brickle. And if Brickle could talk, in human words that is, I can only imagine that he would do the same.
But as I focused on the day, and the ordinary happenings there of it, I thought that maybe it wasn’t so ordinary. You can travel far and wide like we did, for years, and not see anything when you rush around. We may think when we hear a bird like Bob White that it is not special. Because we have heard it so much. We may think it is just the same old song.
But aren’t the songs that we hear the most the ones that we can sing along to? Aren’t our favorite songs the ones that we know by heart? We could have driven by Airy the Air Plant and thought it didn’t deserve to be stopped for. We could have kept walking on our hike and ignored Bob White. But when we think how one day they may not be there…or we may not be there…well, it should cause you to stop. Even if breakfast is a few minutes late. Which it was, by the way.
-Deputy Digby Pancake
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