Wistful Wednesdays: Saturday morning Storm

Tis been an odd day full of reflection. I look forward to this time of week though. Wednesday. The day suspended between the last remaining strains of the previous weekend's chorus and the anticipation of a new weekend full of time with the family and just being at home.

Saturday mornings are my favorite mornings now that we have a dog. Storm (our GSD) and I get up early, letting my wife sleep in. I take Storm outside for our own customized game of fetch we’ve invented together. I doubt many others play fetch like Storm and I do but we’re okay with being different. It’s fun for us and I get to do a lot of walking back and forth in the yard, around 1.5 miles by the time we’re done. And “the girl” as I call her gets to run off some early morning energy. During all of this “work” (haha) I get to reflect on the week, where I did well at things and where I think I need to improve. Sometimes I come up with blog ideas too.

Yep Saturday mornings are fantastically quiet moments that resound as a chorus in my soul.

The time with the girl and the wordless communication between “pack leader” and a dog is darn near spiritual. Storm and I have worked out several wordless commands and ways to feel what the other is thinking. Just comes from spending time together and hanging out, I guess. Much like with people I suppose. Dogs pick it up so much faster though and I’ve always had some sort of special rapport with the doggies. And I truly dig that. Storm is mucho coolioso! (There is a new one for ya and you know who you are, lol)

Storm has her issues though. Her mother was taken from her too soon, to go be a rescue dog, and didn’t get to teach Storm her doggy manners as would normally happen. In that I relate to Storm very much, having never had a Dad, in my case, and not having had the opportunity to learn the things a son needs from his father during the formative years. I had to learn those later. Learning later isn’t easy sometimes. Hasn’t been for Storm or I either one. But I suppose most learning worth keeping really isn’t easy. Experience has a way of being a hard teacher at times.

So my times with Storm although limited are very important to me. She tries very hard. Sometimes she gets it all wrong. As her alpha, if you will, I try very hard not to imprint my human emotion on her actions and to instead remember she’s a dog and doesn’t see the world the way I do. It’s my responsibility to reach out to her in her language, doing my best to understand it to the full, all the while requiring her to speak very little of my own.

And Storm is learning. Just like me. And even though we didn’t have the most important people, we needed around, when we each grew up; we’re still both gonna be pretty cool someday. But for today, being cool for each other is enough.