Much to learn

Each morning, weather permitting, I’m out before sunrise walking our dogs, Maggie and Foster. While there is certainly resistance in making that first move from a warm bed, these walks have progressed from being a chore to time for pleasant reflections.

Over the many months I’ve been doing this I’ve reached the conclusion I have Yin and Yang on the end of my leashes each morning demonstrating the truths about change and balance — lessons for me to absorb.

Foster is the rock, the stone that gives way only reluctantly. He is patience, purified down to 80 pounds in a very short package. Every blade of grass, leaf, rock, mailbox and scent is worthy of prolonged investigation and contemplation. He travels his own course at his own methodical pace and will only reluctantly let himself be distracted or hurried. But then he’s often first to rally most strongly to what he perceives as a challenge or affront revealing strength and aggression normally hidden by his own stoic attitude. He’s at peace with Maggie’s constant movement and seemingly hectic activity letting her roving nature compliment his own limited scouting range.

Maggie is flowing water and blowing wind. Her movements are fluid as she smoothly, efficiently and almost without effort ranges far and wide. She stops only moments to study the more interesting or to test the air, the light and the shadows for things ahead or behind. She is deceptively fast and stands tall and thin. She is the dancer who loves to move for the pure joy it brings her. She absorbs quickly the essence of things and changes direction at a moments whim. She perceives Foster as her anchor in the gail of energy she rides as she adjust her pattern to swing by him before darting off on another venture. While he must seem terribly slow she never shows impatience. She waits, for she seems to understand together they are more than either one alone.

I now accept I’m the one being taken for this walk each morning, for I’m more often the student and they’re the teachers. They are so different, the Yin and Yang, yet maintain perfect balance without obvious effort or either needing to be in control. Each moment experienced fully and then left behind without reluctance moving on to the next. Lessons to learn.

What do I add? I observe, I watch for cars and I keep the two 26 feet retractable leashes from getting tangled — a dance in itself. Perhaps someday I’ll see myself playing a larger contributing role, but this grasshopper* still has much to learn.

The photo — autumn reminds me of a time of harvest and of bountiful fruits, although modern farming methods now means multiple crops harvested throughout the season. This particular tree was bearing fruit almost to the breaking point. Folklore would say perhaps a hard winter is coming. In any case, I view autumn as a time to gather together those things needed to make it through the coming winter. So consider today’s post a little harvesting,  or crabapple picking, of my own.

Background: Both Maggie and Foster are rescue adopted dogs. Foster is part Basset Hound and part Golden Retriever or Labrador. He has the body of a muscular Basset. Maggie we suspect is part Greyhound and possibly Golden Retriever with some other type of hound tossed in. She has the body of a muscular Greyhound. They are both the same golden color with white markings.

*A term from the TV series Kung Fu starring David Carradine in the early 70’s. This term was used when Carradine’s character was a small boy learning the ways from his master and teacher.