0:00 The path knew his feet.0:02 Every root, every smooth stone, every dip and rise was a familiar note in a song he’d known his entire life.0:12 This was Bartholomew the Badger’s path.0:15 And it was perfect.0:17 His world was nothing like the tangled thicket our friend Oliver the Owl had to learn to navigate last week.0:27 Oh, no.0:28 Bartholomew’s world was a place of straight lines and dependable schedules.0:35 His day began when the first sunbeam touched the third branch of the old oak, and it ended with this walk, along this path, to the blackberry bush by the creek.0:50 Always.0:51 The air smelled of damp earth and pine needles.0:55 His stout legs moved with a steady, practiced rhythm.1:00 Left paw, right paw.1:02 He could have walked it with his eyes closed.1:06 In fact, he sometimes did, just for a few paces, enjoying the pure confidence of knowing EXACTLY where he was and where he was going.1:18 It was a deep and satisfying comfort.1:22 The world, on his path, made perfect sense.1:26 Until it didn't.1:27 He rounded the familiar bend around a cluster of ferns, his mind already tasting the sweet burst of a ripe blackberry, and stopped.1:40 He stopped so suddenly his back feet bumped into his front ones.1:46 There, lying directly across his path, was a giant.1:50 A monster.1:51 A colossal oak tree, its roots ripped from the earth, its branches a chaotic mess of splintered wood and green leaves.2:02 A storm must have passed in the day.2:06 A storm he had slept through, safe in his burrow.2:10 But it had left this… this IMPOSSIBILITY blocking his way.2:16 Bartholomew blinked.2:18 He tilted his head.2:19 This was wrong.2:21 This was not part of the plan.2:24 The blackberry bush was on the other side.2:27 The creek was on the other side.2:30 The end of his day was on the other side.2:34 He walked up to the trunk.2:37 It was immense.2:38 Wider than he was long.2:40 He nudged it with his nose.2:43 The bark was rough and unyielding.2:46 He placed his paws on it and pushed.2:49 Nothing.2:50 He pushed harder, his claws scrabbling for purchase.2:55 The tree did not budge.2:57 It was, he had to admit, a very large and very stationary tree.3:03 Well.3:03 If he couldn't go OVER it, he would go under it.3:08 He was a badger, after all.3:10 Digging was his specialty.3:13 He chose a spot where a thick root lifted the trunk a few inches from the ground and began to dig.3:22 The soil was soft at first, flying out behind him in satisfying sprays.3:29 But soon his claws hit something hard.3:32 A rock.3:33 A very large rock, nestled right where he needed to dig.3:38 He tried digging to the left of it.3:41 Another rock.3:43 To the right?3:44 A thick, gnarled root from the fallen tree itself, tough as iron.3:50 An hour passed.3:51 The sun dipped lower, casting long, golden shadows through the forest.3:58 Bartholomew was covered in dirt, his paws were sore, and he was no closer to the other side.4:06 He was also getting quite cross.4:09 This was his path.4:11 HIS path.4:12 The tree had no right.4:14 He abandoned the digging plan.4:17 He would go AROUND.4:19 He scurried to the left, where the tree’s massive root ball was torn from the ground.4:27 It was a fortress of earth and tangled roots, climbing higher than his head.4:34 He tried to climb it, his claws sinking into the loose dirt, but it just crumbled away beneath him.4:43 He slid back down in a small avalanche of soil and pebbles.4:48 He tried the other way, toward the leafy crown of the tree.4:54 Here, the branches were a dense, impenetrable thicket.4:59 A wall of leaves and twigs.5:01 He pushed his way in, but the branches snagged his fur and poked him in the eye.5:09 He backed out with a frustrated snort.5:13 He was hot.5:14 He was tired.5:15 And he was getting very, very hungry.5:18 The blackberries seemed to mock him from a few hundred feet away, a destination he simply could not reach.5:28 He sat down hard on the ground, his meticulous routine shattered.5:34 His perfect path was broken.5:37 He glared at the tree, as if his frustration alone could somehow make it vanish.5:44 It did not.5:45 He just sat there for a long time, watching the light fade.5:51 The forest grew quieter.5:53 A gentle breeze rustled the leaves of the other, still-standing trees.6:00 And in that quiet, Bartholomew finally stopped thinking about how to move the tree.6:07 He stopped thinking about going over, or under, or through.6:13 He just… stopped.6:14 And he looked.6:16 Really looked.6:17 Not at the obstacle, but at everything else.6:21 To his right, just a few feet away, was something he’d seen every single day but never truly noticed.6:31 A faint trail, barely a whisper on the forest floor, where the deer sometimes passed.6:39 It wasn't his path.6:40 It was narrow and winding and went off in a direction that felt… wrong.6:47 It didn't lead straight to the creek.6:50 It curved away, up a gentle slope into a part of the woods he never bothered to explore.6:59 Why would he?7:00 He had his path.7:01 But his path was gone.7:03 He looked at the deer trail.7:06 He looked back at the impossible tree.7:10 He let out a long, slow sigh.7:12 A sigh that let go of all the pushing and the digging and the frustration.7:19 Slowly, hesitantly, he stood up.7:22 He shook the dirt from his fur.7:25 And he took a step.7:27 Not toward the tree.7:29 But toward the little deer trail.7:32 His paws felt strange on the unfamiliar ground.7:36 The earth was softer here, spongier with moss.7:41 It was quiet.7:42 He took another step.7:44 And another.7:45 The trail twisted and turned.7:48 He had to pay attention, watching where he put his feet.7:53 He couldn't walk this path with his eyes closed.7:57 The trees were different here—slender birches with silvery bark stood amongst the familiar oaks.8:06 The air smelled different, too.8:09 Sweeter.8:10 He could smell honeysuckle and something else, something floral and bright.8:17 He felt a little nervous.8:19 This was unknown territory.8:22 But he also felt… a flicker of something else.8:26 Curiosity.8:27 The trail climbed the small hill, and as he reached the top, he stopped again.8:34 But this time, it wasn't because something was in his way.8:40 It was because of what lay before him.8:43 He was standing at the edge of a clearing he had never, ever seen.8:49 It was a meadow, bathed in the soft, rosy light of the setting sun.8:56 And it was carpeted, from one end to the other, with wildflowers.9:02 Purple and yellow and white, all nodding gently in the evening breeze.9:08 Dozens of butterflies, their wings like tiny stained-glass windows, drifted from blossom to blossom.9:18 In the center of the meadow was a small, clear pond, reflecting the pink and orange sky.9:26 And right at the edge of the pond, growing in a thick, glorious tangle… was a blackberry bush.9:35 It was even bigger than his usual one.9:38 And it was absolutely LOADED with dark, plump, perfect berries.9:44 Bartholomew stood at the edge of the trees, his heart thumping a new and unfamiliar rhythm.9:53 He had lived his whole life just a five-minute walk from this place and had never known it was here.10:02 He had been so focused on his one, perfect path that he had never thought to look for another.10:11 Slowly, he walked into the meadow.10:14 The grass was soft beneath his sore paws.10:18 He made his way to the blackberry bush, plucked a berry, and ate it.10:24 It was, perhaps, the sweetest blackberry he had ever tasted.10:30 He didn't rush.10:31 He sat by the pond and ate his fill as the first stars began to appear in the sky.10:39 He wasn't on his path.10:41 He wasn't on his schedule.10:43 And he realized, with a quiet sense of wonder, that it was absolutely, perfectly alright.10:52 His world hadn't been broken by the fallen tree.10:56 It had just gotten bigger.
