Walking with Buddy is teaching me to walk differently. So many times I get out on the path and I’m just trying to get my steps in and make sure I’m building muscles in my legs and slimming down my waist. That doesn’t happen when you walk with a dog!
I’m learning from Buddy to stop and look around and see what there is to see. He loves to stop at every tree and sniff the bark. That causes me to pause and look at all the ridges in the trees and at the roots of the tree which support it. It gives me time to reflect on creation’s beauty in fine detail.
He waddles along joyfully down the path until something again catches his eye or catches his nose. We stop again for him to explore what it is. I’m learning now to stop and look at what it is, instead of waiting impatiently for him to finish his Sniff of the Minute. Off we go again, trucking down the sidewalk, at dog pace.
He will stop at the rustle of a leaf. Sometimes it just startles him, and sometimes he has to go stomp it to see if it will crunch under his foot. It reminds me of the seasons in which we live our lives, ever-changing pieces falling off as new branches and leaves are growing in. Relationships changing, life evolving. I marvel at the change from season to season. We walk along and I wonder what will it be like when winter comes, because we haven’t walked in the winter together yet. It is a sense of anticipation and of dread. Ah life!
He slows me down and gives me time to look up at the sky. He slows me down and gives me time to catch the steeple down the road glistening in the moonlight. Sometimes we just have to sit at the bench too because he loves to sit at the bench and people watch and so we sit and we watch and say “hello “ as only a chihuahua can.
This is when I find myself seeking the presence of God and almost missing it. Just because I live in a “city environment” doesn’t mean I can’t see God here. I can find the creator in the magnificence of a tree built against the side of a building, or in the chirping of the birds, as we walk, yes even the snapping of crickets. There’s all kind of beetles and bugs that crawl out from the ground and while I may squeal when I see them, I have to stop and wonder how God created something so ugly and scary and yet remember that it is God‘s creation and it must be appreciated.
So next time you’re on that walk with your dog and you’re impatient because he is stopping for one more sniff; stop yourself and sniff in the beauty of the world around you. Perhaps there’s a message God has for you in that moment of pausing. Perhaps there will he something to carry home, just for you.
maggiemarcum 