Slow Learner...But I Get There.

This morning, to face the stress monster, I decided a walk was in order. Holding my phone in my hand refreshing Facebook and Instagram was not healthy and I knew it. It's not that I don't have plenty on my to do list, it's just I said I wouldn't start it until I did some kind of exercise.

I got Hazel in the house and Amy ran in too. Oliver and Ricky were watching out the back window intently discussing loudly the reasons they should be on my shoulder. 

Daisy and I took off… passed the flower garden...Passed the area of tree line the deer bed down with Xena following all the way. She was running top speed. She was whining the whole way…my cat interpreter was recognizing small phrases, like, “wait up!”  “My legs are so short!” “I can’t cry and run, slow down!” 

I took a picture and knew as I did I would have to turn around and take her back. I went a bit further and called for Daisy to come back with me. Confused but obedient, she came. 

Getting Xena into the house, we turned to leave again. Daisy shoots to the work barn and Baby jumps out of the honeysuckle bush and runs to me in the field. It didn’t take me as far as it did with Xena to turn back with Baby. I rationalized it…she’s a bigger cat. She won’t go as far as we will…and I called for Daisy. Calling "Daisy" sounds uncannily like "Baby" so every step I took Baby came as quickly as possible. No Daisy, though. I head back.

I put Baby in the house, grab a leash and walk to the work barn. Getting Daisy by the collar as I converse with my landlord about the deer on the property, I detained ole Daisy Mae. 

This time…we are going to walk the perimeter of the property; NOTHING is going to stop us.

Part way around the property we stopped at the creek for Daisy to cool her heels then we headed onto the west side where the new alfalfa field grows. As we get into that area, I remember the coyotes coming back to this area after they checked on the deer a few days ago in broad daylight. I got myself a bit spooked as I remember I don’t have my weapon. I remember I don’t want to watch two coyotes attack my Daisy without something to assist my fur baby in the fight. But I keep walking. Why? Because I said, NOTHING is going to stop us. I start trying to think about what I have to fight with…a retractable leash and an iPhone. Not my choice of weapons. I think if something were to happen I could call the landlord for assistance…IF he could hear his phone over the noise of the cement mixer. I decided I could keep from the very edge of the tree line and maybe the coyotes wouldn’t be interested. I remembered the family of fox that were interested in Silas, Daisy and I a few plus years ago in the same vicinity. I thought about how Daisy was no match for a male and female coyote…that I was leading her into possible danger. 

So I stopped.

I turned around, took a picture of Daisy in a field of Alfalfa and headed back the way I came…I felt as if I had grown by leaps and bounds. 

I recognized the dangers and acted smart about our safety.

 I didn’t allow myself to keep going in the direction my inner being was telling me not to go. 

I faced the reality that I was not locked into a situation, having to “just deal with it and hope for the best.” 

I can set boundaries. 

I can allow myself an out, it doesn’t make me weak.  

And so I grew. 

And my physical exercise was not the only exercise I experienced…this morning, the morning Emily is off on her first day of third grade adventures.