My puppy is my teacher: Lesson 1- "The Daily Walk"
Clementine has been with me for almost a month now- everyday I get to know her better- learn her routine, how she acts when she just wakes up, when she wants to eat, when she needs to go out to go "potty", and when she needs to get out her wild puppy energy.
I'm also trying to get her to learn how to take a proper walk. Ceasar the "Dog Whisperer" says the walk is the most important part of a human/dog relationship. It establishes who is the leader. If a dog walks right beside without pulling you forward, stopping behind or "tracking" by stopping to sniff every single thing, if all their attention is on the leader and they submissively walk at your side, taking all their cues from you- you've established the whole dynamic of the relationship.
We are working on it, but now on walks Clementine stops to "track" and pulls to the right and left. She also freezes and stops when she hears something unfamiliar or sees something that catches her attention. She will stand there alert and frozen until I snap her out of it by giving her a tug or whistling. Then it's like it breaks the trance and she can keep walking. She does this out of instinct- but I'm telling her to snap out of it and trust me to keep going- I know, as her leader, that it's nothing to be alerted by. She needs to just focus on me and keep going. I have patience with her (most of the time) but I look forward to the day when I can enjoy her just walking by my side without the interruptions, stops and starts, stubbornness and distractions that she now has a puppy.
How often do I, as the immature puppy, pull to the right and left, stopping to check out everything that catches my eye? How often do I freeze in fear and wonder at every little disturbance instead of happily keeping my attention on my master and leader?
The journey with God that we all take is called "a walk". There are so many parallels I can draw between my walks with Clementine and my walk with God. Another one is that she needs to walk with me every day. She doesn't know how to walk around the few blocks that I take her and come back home safely. She needs me to lead her and keep her from straying before speeding cars and getting lost. If we don't go on a walk each day, she can get a little crazy, the daily walk calms her down, gets her energy out and let's us spend time doing something together.
I've "spiritualized" the term ''walk with God" so much, thinking of it as this grand picture of my life but maybe it is just what it sounds like- the daily, much needed, literal walk and talk with my Father. Where for a while each day I'm not distracted and "tracking", I'm not frozen in a trance, and I'm not pulling forward- I'm simply trusting my leader and we're both enjoying our time together. It may not be smooth at first, but daily, I'll get it and grow up to be a faithful companion.
