Mangy Dog Days

The other day I was driving through a neighborhood that happens to have a tiny side hill, canal and a few tree's. Not really much wider than a parking strip and a half.
So you can imagine the surprise when I stopped at the sign for a deer to bound past at a pretty good click, with a big dog hot on its heel's.
Being ever the observant one.
And knowing that where there is one, there is usually a hundred you don't see.
I pulled slowly around the corner, put my flashers on and crept down the street.
Car's zoomed past.
To fast to notice, or care about the scene or the lessons hidden in that little strip of tree's.

Being the deep thinker I am...

I knew if I were out there, with big dog problems, and I wasn't on the lamb.

I'd be hiding out.

Covering my tracks.

Trying not to let anything show.

But sometimes when you have a big problem, it's good to have a friend.

Someone to stand by your side.

Friends and family help us through all kinds and sizes of big dog troubles. It is good to know we can count on them. (And yes. It is true, that sometimes they are the ones we sometimes hide out from).

Time, stresses, big dog troubles, work, and just life in general, sometimes leave us feeling a little jumpy and frazzled.

So whether we lead follow or are just trying to get out of the way...

Sometimes we get trapped in the head lights of our on coming lives!!

We get overrun buy the hard parts of life and it can give us a case of the mange if we aren't careful!!

But like these deer, being largely passed by and unseen, life will go on. The things that are plaguing us now, like a fast hound hot on our heel's, will eventually start getting boared and start trippin on its lolling tongue and stop.

The tree's will fill in to give better cover, or we will be moving to higher, safer ground.

And while it's true there will be different dangers, struggles and beasties there, rest assured that you have friends and  family that have and will stick by you through even the mangy day's.

ps Don't go thinking that just because the big dog is chasing just one of us that it doesn't effect all of us in different ways.

What size dog scares me, might not faze you and what I think is ok, may be the farthest thing from ok for you...so lets try to be gentle with each other today-and everyday.

 

Red Shoes

Sometimes I wear red shoes.

Sometimes I just like to do that.

They make me feel...happy.

She had been struggling with the weight of the world balanced squarely on her shoulders.
Oh no, it wasn't the first time, nor was it likely to be the last. She knew that fact all to well.
As she headed into the shoe shop that fell in the middle of the newly refurbished "antique" district of town, her mind raced back over time to the first time she came to this little shop.

It was back when people dressed to go up town, would stop to visit on the streets and in the shops. She remembered skipping along in her well worn blue sneakers, feeling a bit sad they were getting to well worn and would be graduating to everyday shoes now, instead of school shoes only.
Entering the shop beside her mother, the sales girl met them at the door to help, its just how things were done back then.
While her mother looked around for other things she recalled being able to, look but don't touch. So with her tiny hands clasped firmly behind her back along the rows of shoes she began.
Half way down the row of shoes, just her size, she froze in her track's, there before her was the most beautiful shoes she had ever in her whole little life seen! She stood guard over the find until she was joined by her mother.
"Look! Awen't they the most beautiful shoes you have eveow seen in yo whole life?!" She brightly asked without looking directly at her mother's face.
"They are, very nice shoes dear, but today we came to buy new school shoes." Was her direct by not stern tone.
Obediently she followed her mother to the row of sneaker's to make sure to get the right size. Her lower lip jutting out as far as she could muster.
After finding the right pair of red sneaker's, (not at all the beautiful pair!), her mother sent her to the counter with the old pair in the little box in her hands, to wait while mother picked up a few pair of sock's for the boy's. 
Eye's brimming with the tears of a little breaking heart she waited, through the entire remainder of the purchase, not trusting her voice, she tried to remain stoic until her mother asked her to help carry the packages.  
Handing her two boxes, wrapped in brown paper and tied together with the white string that would be kept and used for something else later on. Her tiny heart skipped a beat as her mother whispered to her on the way out of the shop...
"I think every girl should have some beautiful red shoes. Don't you? They just seem to make us happy!"
She had fairly danced home to the tip-tap of her mother's own beautiful pair of fancy red go to town shoes.

Pushing the old door open to the sound of the little bell that still rang the same, met at the door by a different young sales girl asking if she could help her find something, she smiled, "Yes thank you. I'm looking for a beautiful, happy, pair of red shoes today."
A bright smile lighting her young features she replied, "I have just the thing. Follow me please." As the tip-tap of her own red shoes clicked happily across the worn wooden floor.  

What Do You Do...

What do you do when you can't do anything?!

When the bottom drops out and there's no place to stand that doesn't seem to be sliding, and its raining out side and you can't see to fly...
What do you do when you can't do anything!?
You stand helplessly by with a word and a prayer. You stay as busy as you possibly can!
You clean and you scrub, you dust and you sweep, You find time to do the things from your really long, "someday I need to get that done" list...
By then it's noon and you have at least a million more years to the end of the day.
So then what?
What can you do when you can't do anything?
You try hard to obey, even when the master's plan doesn't make a lick of sense to you.
You lean into the wind as you try to breath when your breath is stolen in snatches, you count your heart beats as they pound through your chest, and you do the small things you can...
When the bottom drops out and there's no place to stand that isn't to slippery, and its raining out side and you can't see to fly...

When A Day Seemed Like A Month

Once upon a time, in what sometimes feels like another life time ago, our little family of four, back then, lived for two, three month Summer's in a one room, red tar paper and plywood shack.

And it was an experience.

The only way in or out was by air travel that consisted of anything from a single engine Cessna to a roaring "box car". We watched each with fascination as the navigated...or tired to navigate...the short dirt runway. We watched as one of each crashed on separate occasions. The sound of a single engine airplane flying overhead just right can still make me look up from what I'm doing and say, "Mail's here!".

Did I mention it was an experience? It was.

I did laundry for the mostly man camp, in an old electric wringer washer and melted snow. We had an electric dryer that took for~ever, to dry stuff with, when it was working.

It was fun, for the first week or two.

Then the monotony set in, the withdrawals from even going to the store to buy a gallon of milk sounded like a trip to heaven! It got to be really hard to be there after a month. The second month was torture by monster mosquito's...the third had us all marking the calendar dates off and it went so excruciatingly s-l-o-w that sometimes it almost felt like time were going backwards!
Then one day it was time to load up our meager belongings and fly back to civilization-We had to fly out in shifts, and it was so hard to see those first flights out and not be on them. "Three more day's and it's our turn." I'd tell myself, and those three day's seemed like month's!!!

But they did pass, the awaited date did come, our flight's were safe and we did eventually arrive back home with yarn's to entertain the neighbor's with.

As much as I longed for those long hard day's to pass, they could only pass in their own due time. I couldn't rush them or slow them, I could only endure them.

And they passed. An hour at a time, but they did eventually pass, and we were looking back at them and thinking, 'Boy, it seemed to take forever when we were counting them off, and to pass in a blink when we looked back at them.'

So remember, what ever your going through today. What ever amount of time you may be longing to pass by quickly, that may be seeming to move at a snail's pace...will pass.



http://www.mindat.org/loc-200377.html


Just listen... It happens in a blink 

You Never Know When You Are Making A Memory

If we never know when we are making a memory, shouldn't we be careful with our lives?

I mean if you look at the memories you have, were they always the planned things? Were they the big things or the expensive things?

Or are your best memories of times that just seemed to happen, be shared, and the feelings of the times that were planned?

I've had occasion to think over my life lately. Making a close examination.

My brother passed away and left a wonderful legacy. He was a writer, among other things he did so well. I have been able to read a story he wrote that is surprisingly...where I am right now!

It has brought to the forefront of my mind...my memories.

And while I am taking time to look over and sort a lot of things out, I find that I am still making possible memories all the time.

One of my recent memories is of the garage painting we were joined for recently. Family and friends came to help and the job was done and dry long before the rains returned.

While we were out around the dutch oven's and smoking grill, we looked up and saw a rare city sight...

As these beautiful Hawk's circled lazily above, we all stood mesmerized below, watching as the 3 pairs took turn hunting the city streets for sustenance to continue their journey.

It was not a big thing. It was one of those quit little happenings that brought the gift of a memory for some who were in attendance, while other's paid it little or no mind.

Yes you never know when you will be making a memory, so take the time to look around and be open to all that may be there for the taking.

And while you are out gathering memories for yourself, try to leave good memories for other's in your wake.