An original story by Stan Escott for children with an active imagination, who can see themselves in the Reds and Greens of their lives. God bless the readers and the dreamers.
Pause and Zipp were cousins. They loved each other. They played together and had so much fun. Ah, but there was a difference, a BIG, BIG difference, more than the fact that Zipp liked RED things, and Pause liked GREEN.
Anyone could see that they were different when they would go to the park. Zipp was always running, as fast as he could. He would zoom here, and he would zoom there, and then he would come zooming back, and do it all over again! He was so fast, why many thought that Zipp could run as fast as the wind!
All the while, Pause would sit and rest and watch Zipp fly by, and would laugh and admire his friend’s zoomies, and wished he could run so fast. But Pause loved to come to the park for another reason. He enjoyed resties, just looking at the green of the garden and admire the flowers. Pause would look for bugs and worms and watch the birds that flew by. He was very observant and thoughtful, and believed that everything under the sun were gifts from God.
One day, when Zipp was zooming around, he was going so fast that he did not see the stone in the path! As he went zooming by he tripped! Oh, No, and went head over heels, and heels over head, until KERR-PLOP! Poor Zipp landed beside Pause, who was resting beside the stream, watching the frogs frolic in the water.
Now Zipp was not hurt, but he needed to rest and drink the cool water which Pause gave him. While the friends sat resting together, watching the frogs at play. Pause told Zipp all about the garden, the flowers, the names of birds that were flying by, and pointed out cloud formations in the deep blue sky.
And Zipp learned a lot about watching and observing and resting, and he knew that he could always run fast, but now he knew he could rest and enjoy the garden, the bugs, the clouds in the sky, and even a wooly worm that slowly crawled by.
Pause knew that while he could always rest and watch for bugs and frogs and clouds, but he learned there were times when he, too, could zoom, almost as fast as Zipp, and he found it was lots of fun to do both, to zoom and restie.
And so Pause and Zipp learned together that each had talent and wonders to share. Now anyone could tell there were differences, but it was those differences that made each of them special.
What could you learn today about zooming fast or resting still, or just observing what you will?
A cloud, a flower, a bird on the wing, just about any ole thing?
After all, it’s there for you, made by God, it must be true.
The End
Stan Escott (3/1/26)
