It's been a while, since I last felt the urge to share my world here on the blog. It has been a difficult year and a half as I learned how to navigate widowhood, groundlessness, fear, sadness and darkness. But the beauty is that within all that pain, there is still the spark of life and joy and courage and meaning. Steadily that spark has grown in my life to the point where I now feel strong and capable again, able to contribute again, to the point where I have rediscovered joy. Sorry to have been gone so long, but some walks require you to hunker down and power through without a lot of extraneous distraction.
Sooo.... anyways. One of the things that has brought great joy to my world lately is a new addition to my family.... When my last dog, Gwen, passed away 6 months ago, I powerfully resisted getting another dog. My life felt too disjointed to take on the responsibility of further pet ownership. Better to wait until I knew what the heck I was doing with my life, until I had it all figured out. And then something really sucky happened. My house was burgled. A thief broke into my car, opened my garage and entered my house through the garage. My belongings were rifled, some little stuff was taken and my fancy new bike was stolen. My sense of safety and security was shaken and I was angry and hurt. If you've never had your house burgled, it's not a pleasant feeling to know that someone has been inside your house, violating your privacy, taking your things. The scariest part about it was knowing that it happened while I was home, in the house! And I never heard a thing. I realized that if I'd had a dog, it would have alerted me that something was happening. When I made my report to the police, the officer told me that over 80% of the houses that are burgled are ones without a dog. Dogs deter the thieves looking for an easy target. Add to that my sister, the dog trainer, who had been urging me to get a dog and promising to help train it; and the die was cast. It was obviously time to get a dog. So my sister found me the perfect puppy, and took her home for basic training.
A month later I flew out to Columbus, where my sister lives, to pick up the new little member of my family, Daisy. My sister had been sending me progress reports, videos and pictures and I was already fairly smitten. But when I held the little wigglebutt of love in my lap and felt her lick my ear I fell completely head over heels and it's been a romping love affair ever since. It turns out that a wiggly little doglet was exactly what I needed in my life. She has given me a reason to get up, get out and get moving. And she returns my love in tenfold. She is someone to talk to when the house gets too quiet, and someone to remind me that you have to take a break every now and then and throw the ball. Who knew that the sucky experience of getting burgled would bring such joy and beauty back to my world? You never know what life is going to hand you, sometimes you get the sucky bike stealers, but if you keep your eyes open you might just end up with joyful wigglebutts in the bargain. With Daisy at my side life is full of giggles and good times.
P.S. I did get my bike back eventually. Thank you Eugene Police Department. It's always a good idea to keep track of serial numbers!
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