Second Draft: The "Why Now?"

Once I was hiking and ran out of water.
The day grew hot and I grew dehydrated.
I found a stream and bent to drink, and as I did
I remembered a story read to me by my grandmother.
Perhaps you know of it, this legend of the king and his hawk
out hunting and the king grew very thirsty. He found water
running down the side of steep hill. He put his chalice
to the water and his hawk swept down and batted
his golden cup away. The king tried it again and then a third time.
Each time the hawk flew down and knocked his cup out of his hand.
On the fourth attempt, in frustration and delirium, the king
felled the hawk with his sword. He climbed up that hill to the source
of the water to drink. There he found a poisonous snake.
The hawk was trying to save its friend.
As I bent to that stream, I remembered this story read to me by my parents. Then a breeze shifted
directions. A foul smell found me and thirsty as I was, I walked up stream
a short ways and found a dead cow decomposing in the stream.*
***
Stories have a way of finding us as we face challenges. Why tell your story
today? This is a powerful question I've been asking you. That your story
that comes from the past is made powerful by what it says about today,
what you are facing, what you are becoming. Keep writing.
*story used by permission from Kim Stafford