I have a dog

I have a dog (and no it's not the one that was pictured in the last post).

The reason I say this is that I now I have to take my dog out on walks. (okay, so technically he's not my dog - he lives in the house where I am housesitting and so I am also dogsitting). He is a really great dog! However, he needs to get out of the house at least twice a day for at least twenty minutes. This doesn't seem like much, except that I have time to think as I am walking around my neighborhood. I have to time to look at my watch and think. Sometimes I am in a hurry. Sometimes I am just walking enjoying the beautiful weather here.

Recently I have been thinking about rushing. I don't mean joining a sorority, I mean the fact that I am always trying to finish whatever I am doing. I am trying to move onto the next thing. I can't just sit and do the task I'm doing. I have to do that task as quickly as possible. The quicker I do something the better it is. However, walking a dog for twenty minutes cannot be done in less than twenty minutes. That means I cannot rush through this act. The fact that I cannot rush through my walk gives me the freedom to truly be present with my dog and with my feet and with the ground and with the trees as I am walking for a full twenty minutes.

I sometimes wish other activities had a timer on them. But alas, writing can be rushed through or procrastinated and there is no alarm that will ring telling me my writing is done. Only I can do that. I can take solace in the time I have during the day that I cannot rush through. The time I have walking my dog.