Live Large

I have had an unusual day, hitting one of the sales and replenishing some of my tired wardrobe (will that help my tired body?). I was also looking for a special wedding present which I didn’t quite decide on, but it was a very pleasant morning.

Came home and did a bit of sprucing up of the pots of flowers for the winter, and while throwing out the detritus I ended up by Dusty’s last resting place. It is a lovely spot, overlooking the field but the long view takes in the hill over Banchory called Scolty. The Hill of Fare also looms large-ish and grounds this area in Scottish history. Maybe Mary Queen of Scots stood here while watching the rout of the Catholic faction in a decisive battle a few hundred years ago.

But I digress.

While pausing by Dusty’s grave, I reflected on the joy she brought me during her life. She was a dog who lived large. Undeterred by a particularly nasty leg break at 7 weeks old, her speed when chasing a ball (or a deer for that matter ;-( ) was remarkable. She derived ecstatic happiness from leaping with complete abandon into any body of water into which someone obligingly threw a stick or two. 

I have spent many happy moments laughing like a lunatic perhaps as she raced and sprang into the loch at Crathes Castle or the River Dee. She didn’t pause to consider any possible reasons for not leaping with such commitment, to her shocked bruising one winter when a certain person who shall remain unnamed mischievously tossed a stick onto the frozen loch...ouch!

Factoring in the ice, or any other hazards, just did not occur to nor hinder Dusty. Just a week before her death, she managed half a walk at Crathes Castle, wading in after sticks with the same determination but with an unobliging body which gave her much grief for a couple of days afterwards in the form of stiffness. Her spirit remained strong and her joie de vivre only evaporated over her last weekend.

It’s a bit odd taking a lesson from your dead dog, perhaps, but I am. I want to live my remaining days LARGE. I want to throw myself into whatever project I feel called to do with total commitment. I don’t want to hang back hesitating, considering the possible problems. I don’t want to live by the guidelines of proper Health & Safety procedures but by the guidelines of God, whose Word (the Bible) is a lamp to my feet, guiding me through the sometimes dark present into the unknown future. 

His Word confirms that we have been given a spirit of boldness and not timidity. 

So, thank you Dusty for living so large and leaving the memory of that as a real legacy for me. I just need to keep receptive to other sources of joy and laughter which abound in each of our lives.

Thank you God, for such a gift of life, and thank you Jesus for coming so that we might live life to the full in the power of your indwelling Spirit.