Profound Thoughts and Lessons From the Dog

It seems that the weather fairies have decided to grant us rain-soaked Washingtonians a few days of spring and I, for one, am trying to take full advantage of it. After work for the last couple of days, I've come home, picked up the pup, and taken an afternoon/early evening walk over to the park down the street. It's been great. Not only does it give Jade a chance to burn off her astounding amount of puppy energy, but it gets me out of my dark, musty cave of an apartment into the fresh air and actually moving my stiff body around before atrophy completely sets in.

Jade loves going to the park. She loves having the big, open, grassy area in which she can run freely at the fastest speed her little legs will go. We bring her hacky sack (yes, as Derrick the Hippie's dog, she prefers the small, overfull bag to a normal tennis ball), a bowl of water, and a book and I sit quietly reading in the grass while she runs in wide circles around me, gathering sticks, rocks, her ball, and whatever else I'm willing to throw. She's very well behaved, returning to me whenever I call her, staying within a reasonable distance, and not bothering the other people (actually, she barks a little at the stranger then runs back to me. She's going through a scaredy cat phase). She's a pleasure to take out and play with.

There is one problem to the routine, though. While we are walking, I keep Jade on her Halti to keep her from accidentally running out in front of a car. She HATES the Halti (it's a training device used with the leash. It goes around her nose and then latches to her collar. That way as we teach her to walk with the leash, we end up leading her by the nose instead of by the neck. It saves a lot of strain on our arms and keeps her from choking). She spends a lot of the short walk trying to get the Halti off her face, either by rubbing her nose on my legs (which makes walking hard) or rubbing her face on the ground (which actually tends to cause the Halti to tighten up and lock her mouth closed). I keep trying to tell her that if she would stop fighting with it, we would get there faster and then she would be free to run without it. But she's a stubborn little pup and never listens. So we walk, stop, adjust the Halti, then try to start over again. Eventually, however, we do get to the park and I take it off of her and she happily froliks until her little heart's content.

I was talking to a friend the other day and I mentioned that I think God sent Jade to my life for a reason. I've been feeling lonely and frustrated lately. Most of the time I feel a little unloved. I have a hard time taking comfort in God's love for me when He hasn't brought the human arms into my life to give me His hugs. Then suddenly, Jade is here and she has the unconditional love for me that I keep feeling without. She's always happy when I come around and she very cuddly, always sitting close to me and laying her head on my leg or arm. I told my friend that it felt like Jade was sent here to love me until my human love comes along.

But maybe she's here to teach me a few things along the way, too.

Watching Jade fight her Halti, knowing that I'm doing it to protect her and teach her, got me thinking about myself and God. Perhaps my singlehood is like Jade's Halti. I hate it, I don't want to wear it, I fight it with everything in me, and I ask Him to please, please remove this hateful situation from my life. But He doesn't. Maybe single is what He is using to guide me, teach me, and protect me while He leads me to a better place. Maybe if I would stop resisting and just walk along side Him like I'm supposed to, we could finally get to that place He has for me and He can "take off the Halti" and let me run free and happy.

Does this insight make me feel better? Not really. I may realize that He knows better, but to my poor little puppy-eyes, it still seems like an endless journey. It's really hard to be patient, even when I know that He's got my best interest in mind.

After making this strange connection in relationships, I changed our evening walk a little tonight. Rather than making Jade walk nonstop to our unknown destination, I stopped occasionally to give her a little treat for encouragement. She still fought the Halti for a bit, but eventually she started walking next to me without fidgeting. She started to realize that I wasn't putting her in this situation to punish her, but rather because I care and am protecting her.

Just like God does with me.