"Look at this," he would say. "It doesn't ask for the rain to be easy. It just finds the moisture deep in the stone. If this little flower can find a way to bloom in a crack of a rock, we can surely find a way to get through one dry summer."
By the time the autumn rains finally arrived, the village hadn't just survived; they were stronger and more connected than ever. Callum went back to his loom, but he always kept a dried bunch of mountain thyme hanging by his window. It served as a permanent reminder that the most beautiful things often grow in the toughest places, and that hope, like the thyme, is always worth "pu'ing" (pulling) if you're willing to climb for it. The "Wild Mountain Thyme" is also a famous folk song—
Callum, however, didn't despair. He knew that wild mountain thyme was a survivor; it grew in the harshest cracks of the rocks where nothing else dared to take root. He climbed higher than he ever had before, reaching the "Eagle’s Peak," a jagged crown of stone that stayed cool even in the heat. There, tucked away in the shadows of the boulders, he found a carpet of resilient, fragrant thyme, still blooming in defiance of the sun.