By Caroline Brier

The water shimmered and glistened, lapping at the edge of the lake.  You could see the clear reflections of the surrounding trees projecting as far out into the water as they stood tall reaching for the clear blue sky.

Sat at the water’s edge Badger sighed heavily at the thought of his long walk around the lake to get back to his set on the other side.  As you can imagine, it was a beautifully scenic journey and each day Badger made the same journey right around the edge.  However in Badgers eyes the path was dull and he was board of repeating the same old route.

As he looked at his miserable reflection in the water, down flew Robin.  ‘Badger, I’ve been watching you day after day, week after week, month after month and I have to ask you – why do you make the same journey every day?’.  ‘I have no choice’ replied Badger.  ‘I have to visit the rabbit family in the morning, the squirrel family at lunch time and then the otter family in the afternoon before returning home… it’s just the way it is’.

‘What if it wasn’t’ muttered Robin, taking flight.  Badger watched her glide one way then the other, out to the middle of the lake and then back, up high in the sky and back down, before settling down beside him again.  Badger smiled at Robin, stood a little taller and went on his way, walking with a little more spring in his step.

The next day Badger walked the opposite way round the lake.  The forest animals struggled with this change to start with.  As the days went on they didn’t know which direction or what time they would see Badger.

Robin flew around the forest singing ‘if you always do what you’ve always done you will always get what you always got’.  Badger decided to take the boat into the middle of the lake and watch the ripples move across the water all the way back to the shore.