Today I walked out of the house for my morning walk, with the dog, and took a right instead of a left at the dirt road. I had never gone very far down the dirt road since walking right, toward the Olympic Mountains seen from my hill, was my usual practice. I can see the Puget Sound from my home, which is only a few blocks up the hillside from the shoreline.
This left turn walk proved to be of immeasurable good fortune, as I was trying to find a place to train the dog, without a lot of energy swirling around her. The dirt road continued for about an eight of a mile, into the back side of my forest, next to the house, and proved to be a huge open area that a dog could be happy in if she had to take a class from her inept, but dedicated, dog trainer. Me.
Whenever I travel around the world, there are always those moments when I scurry down a street because there is a sense that I have to go that way. Like the dog, following my nose, so to speak. Sometimes I am dissapointed as it leads to nothing I am interested in and usually it leads to a wonderful surprise, like the perfect doorway to take a photo of, or an interesting encounter with a stranger in a cafe.
Unlike dogs, humans tend to stay to their known paths everyday. Same work route, same lunch room, same gas station, only because we are tied to time addiction, which restricts not only our movements toward new discoveries, but also our discovering a surprise which solves a problem we have been pondering for weeks. Like me trying to figure out where a large space is close to home that is private for dog training.
My mother had a stoke a few weeks ago which brought me to the realization that life is short and I needed to act more consciously in designing mine now. So I am renting a fence for the dog. 200 feet of 5 foot fence sections with a man-door, so she can be outside safe. The dog was rescued from the side of the road after someone had thrown her out of a car.
Then, like my mother, began to not be well. Bella is gone now, however, for the little time we spent together, I appreciated all the joy she brought into my life, for those few short months. The fence was never installed, since she died. I waited all this time to write this post, or finish it, and remember how she sat with me on the couch, tried to attack cars while we were driving 65 mph on the freeway, but more than that how she came to trust me, and I her, whenever we were alone together.
Then, like my mother, began to not be well. Bella is gone now, however, for the little time we spent together, I appreciated all the joy she brought into my life, for those few short months. The fence was never installed, since she died. I waited all this time to write this post, or finish it, and remember how she sat with me on the couch, tried to attack cars while we were driving 65 mph on the freeway, but more than that how she came to trust me, and I her, whenever we were alone together.
Bless those 4 paws and that lovely animal that changed my life in a few short months.
