The Magic Mushroom

A Mushroom Story

My daughter Cassie was about 3 years old. She wanted me to take her mushroom hunting. It was late in the season, but there was a spot not too far away from the house I thought I would take her knowing the chances of finding a mushroom would be very slim.

When we got there, I picked her out a walking stick. I told her it was a special stick that came from a special tree. The stick would start moving if we got close to a mushroom. Of course I ended up caring her most of the time. We walked and walked. We saw no mushrooms. Finally I saw one mushroom by an old tree. It was starting to dry up. I started sniffing the air for Cassie to notice. I told her,"I smell a mushroom!" I put Cassie down so she could find the mushroom. I was shaking my stick as I encouraged her to keep looking. I gav her hints of where to look. She walked all around that mushroom almost stepping on it. She still did not find it. Finally I pointed my stick at it and told her to use her stick. She started shaking her stick also, still not seeing the mushroom. I continued telling her that I could smell a mushroom. After a period of time I could see she was starting to get discouraged. So, I walked up to the mushroom. I pointed at it and told her, "I believe I see it". And then I told her she should look at the end of the of the stick. After pointing out the mushroom, I let her pick it. Of course,she was very excited as she dropped that one partly dried mushroom in the Wal-Mart bag.

All of this excitement resulted in her wanting to look a little more. But, there were no more mushrooms to be found. I picked her up and we started to leave. Then all of a sudden she started sniffing and said "Dad, I smell a mushroom!" Since we had already looked in that spot and there were no other mushrooms, I told her that maybe she was smelling the mushroom that was in the bag. She replied,"No Dad, I smell a mushroom!"

Since I had built up the story of the magic stick and smelling of mushrooms, I thought, "man how am I going to get out of this?" As I knew there were no more mushrooms. I also knew this was a big adventure to my little girl who truly believed the sticks were magic and I was able to smell the mushroom. I tried to tell her that I couldn't smell any more mushrooms. But that didn't work. She said "No! No! Dad I smell a mushroom!" Not knowing what to say, I put her down and said" If you say you smell one then there must be one here". Although we had already searched in this area for 20 minutes, we began again to look for that mushroom she was smelling. It was the only thing I could do. We looked & looked with no results. Cassie kept saying "Dad I smell A mushroom!"

Then finally, I spotted a mushroom on the opposite side of the tree where the other one was found. Of course this child was fit to be tied. She kept saying, "Dad I told you I smelled a mushroom!"

I had looked around that tree several times before and never once saw any mushroom. The only answer is God works in strange ways. Because I had made up the story about the magic stick and smelling the mushroom. God over looked my faults and short comings as He knew how important this adventure was to this little girl who looked up to her Father as her hero. This a true story that I will cherish all my life. ~ JJ Shaw

This is a picture of JJ while he was serving in the Marines and Vietnam. He shared this story with me on Wednesday afternoon. When he told me he wrote it all down after it happened so he wouldn't forget, I told him I really wanted to put it on my blog. He kindly sent me this story via email. JJ is one special man to take his little girl Cassie mushroom hunting with the magic stick. And, he is truly one special man to write this down so he would not forget. How awesome is that? Cassie is now a junior in high school. I encouraged JJ to read this story at her wedding some day.

Some one once said,"when someone wants to share something about themselves with you, that is one of the nicest things they can do". I thought about that statement for a bit. It is so true. Think of the people that tell you things. Now think of the ones that don't. Those people who love to share their life are the ones who seem to enjoy it the most and have learned from it. I'm sorry to the one's that don't want to listen or want to take part in sharing. It's really a sad, sad life for them. The author of this story has enriched my life with so many stories and experiences that I cannot possibly express how much he means to me and some of my other co-workers. He's a truly wonderful, mushroom hunting man!! Thanks so much JJ!!