Appreciate everything…

Coming home from an evening of friends, I pulled into the ranch and parked underneath the low hanging oak tree limb that will shade my car in the morning sun.

I sat there for a minute, listening to the end of a podcast that was talking about something I was enjoying. As I got out of the car I look towards the house and there was Otis, sitting on the front porch watching me. What a loyal friend and constant companion he has been. I have been gone for four hours and I’m sure he has gone off and explored here and there but made sure he was on the porch waiting for me when I got home. Whether he’s waiting for food or waiting for me I don’t care. I choose to believe he is waiting for me. As I stroked his beautiful face and kissed his forehead, I remembered back to an evening I can barely talk about without breaking into tears. I had spent the evening looking for horses with my wonderful Punkin dog in the back of the truck as she always was. When we pulled up to the house, I lowered the tailgate and asked her, “are you ready for some supper? ” She stood there looking at me and I thought, well, I guess not, and I walked to the house. Thinking she must be thirsty and hungry I went ahead and prepared her supper and filled her bowl with freshwater. Coming out to the back porch, I set it down and called, “Punkin… Supper! “. But she didn’t come? Why not? Silly girl… I walked to the end of the sidewalk and looked in the back of the truck and she was lying dead where I had last seen her. I think she was trying to tell me goodbye in her little way and I didn’t recognize it. Faithful girl. I cry tonight when I think of it. Did I thoroughly let her know how much she meant to me? And then I start thinking, do I let anyone know? So as I kiss Otis tonight, and I walk up the stairs I look down at him and say, “you know how much I love you? It’s really important to me that you know how much I love you”. And so I learn, appreciate everything. Do not pick and choose… Appreciate everything.