Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Walking the Dog, II

The last couple of nights I've taken the dog for a run, as described in last week's post. I'm trying to get more serious, or at least semi-serious, about exercise, for both of us.

The honeysuckles that were so fragrant last week, with the warming and windy weather are starting to shrivel.  You can still catch the scent, but not so strong as before.  Maybe there's a metaphor in there about their moment (and ours) in the sun.

The canine, not as smart as Lassie, is nonetheless fairly intelligent - capable of running alongside as I pedal the bike, without getting her leash caught up in the contraption, and intuitively moving gracefully out of the way even when I turn in her direction.

Tonight, after reaching the park, I let her off the leash, partly to see if she'd chase the ducks and geese.  She didn't. But the rest of the trip through the park, I left her untethered, and she kept a fairly close distance.

Leaving the park, I started to connect her again, but decided against.  The four or five blocks to the house, she pretty much kept pace, even though I expected her to get distracted here and there (e.g. at a fire hydrant).

Maybe leadership sometimes involves setting the leash aside.

1 comment:

todd said...

It also illustrates what God would call freedom through obedience.