A quite unexpected perfect moment

Awaking at 5:30 am is not an auspicious beginning to a Saturday morning;  especially when I'm more than aware that the rest of the family won't be up until at least mid-morning.  Its even worse since I plan to go out tonight. Rising prior to dawn will ensure that I will be drifting off to sleep before 10 pm. 

These are the thoughts that were running through my head as I tried to force myself to go back to sleep.  I spent half an hour with my eyes shut listening to the absolute silence that only exists in the wee hours of the morning.  By 6:00, I had given up the fight.  Sleep was absolutely not in the cards for me.  I surrendered to morning and went downstairs to let my Shady dog out, feed him, and make a cup of tea.  Then, the second disaster of the day became apparent.  There was no dog food left for Shady. 

Now, Shady is a dog who values his routine.  He runs out the front door briefly as soon as I come down the steps; does only the most necessary things; then runs back in for breakfast.  Today, he just stared at me with the most melancholy look when he realized that his bowl was empty and that I wasn't doing anything about it.  I stood in the kitchen, making my tea, explaining to the dog that we would go get dog food when the big hand was on the nine.  After realizing that I was crossing the line between devoted dog owner and babbling psychotic, I took my cup of tea upstairs to see what I could find on television.  I gazed at my sleeping family with unabashed hatred as Shady followed me up to my room.  How could they just lay there sleeping while I was wide awake and dealing with the guilt of my starving dog?

How is it possible that there is absolutely nothing to watch on 300 television channels?  I put on a rerun of Law and Order that I'd only seen twice and settled in to drink my tea.  As the morning progressed, the day looked more and more beautiful.  I had broken all the rules and let Shady come into the bedroom with me as a result of my guilt over starving him and destroying his routine.  He seemed completely incapable of sitting still.  By 7:30, I had had my full of bad television and a 65 lb wiggling dog. 

It was difficult to convince myself not to go down and wake everyone to go to the shore and open the trailer for the season.  I had a terrible internal battle.  I knew that rain was in forecast for this afternoon, this evening and the following day at the shore.  I knew what a terrible chore it would be to unpack everything from the trailer in the rain. Still, looking at the sun shining brightly out front, it was all that I could do not to wake everyone and take the chance that it wouldn't rain.  Luckily, I came to my senses and realized that Tom, the ultimate pessimist, would make it impossible to enjoy the beautiful day down the shore because he would insist on making dire predictions about the potential rain.

Time to come up with a plan!  I wasn't going to get back to sleep.  Choices on television weren't going to improve.  I had an hour and a half to kill before the big hand was on the nine and I could get food for Shady.  Ok, I'll take Shady for a walk in the park to apologize for my negligence in not getting him food.  I threw on clothes, grabbed a bag with a water bottle, a book, my bank card, and the car keys.  I attached Shady's little treat sack to the waist of my pants and we were off.

I have no idea why he behaved throughout the entire walk.  I doubt that I will ever be able to replicate the experience.  He didn't pull my arm out of the socket.  He didn't bark at people, or dogs, or apparitions that appear only to him.  He was charming and well mannered.  We walked the two blocks to the park and headed toward the back section of the park.  There's a path about a quarter mile long into the wooded section behind the well-cared for section of the park.  Shady and I enjoy walking down that path.  The path ends at a huge tree that fell across it years ago.  Beyond the tree is a very small area that ends with fencing which separates the park from the golf course next to it. 

We usually walk as far as the tree and then I'll sit on the tree stump and read while Shady picks up sticks longer than he is and runs about like a fool.  Sometimes he'll let me throw them for him but he seems to have some bizarre idea that I'm going to take the stick and keep it.  More often than not, he'll just amuse himself with the sticks. 

Today, however, he decided to jump the tree stump.  Feeling somewhat emboldened by the beautiful day and the complete absence of another living soul, I followed him across the stump with little expectation of finding anything.  He had headed toward what appeared to have once been a path, but was now badly overgrown.  Like a child, I followed him.  After walking through a bit of brush, I realized that we were at the edge of a portion of the creek that no one had bothered to fence in.  It was quite an incline, but I threw caution to the wind and navigated my way cautioulsy over rocks to the edge of the creek. 

It was amazing. The area that we were standing in was shady but the sun was shining on the creek a little bit to the right.  The creek had a strip of sparkle down the middle at the point where the sun touched it.  After my eyes got used to looking out of the shade, I noticed a single goose floating on the creek toward the sun.  I turned to look for Shady.  He had found a tree root that was partially exposed and was having the time of his life wrestling to get it out of the ground.  I found a flat stone which seemed as if it had been made to be a chair.  I sat and read my book for a bit while Shady fought the good fight with the tree root.  It was amazing.

Suddenly, there was an odd noise to our right.  Shady bounded toward the creek.  I looked for someone with a small barking dog.  Around a bend a bit up the creek came two beautiful geese, swimming side by side and honking away!  The single goose that was still much closer to us began to swim toward them.  I don't know much about geese, but it sure did seem that they were glad to see each; a reunion of old geese friends.  They kicked up quite a ruckus!  They were honking and flapping their wings.  They would lift out of the water for a brief period then land with a small splash leaving a wake behind them.  Shady was going mad!  He wanted to get in the water with them, he wanted to fly with them.  He wanted to be Shady the dog/goose.  In that moment I realized that I was having a truly perfect, completely unplanned, completely unexpected moment. 

We started back shortly after the geese calmed down and started swimming calmly.  Shady conquered the tree root and began to search for something to occupy him and I finished the chapter in my book.  We walked back up the path toward the "kept" area of the park.  Shady was running about like a madman; almost as if he wanted to do all the running he could before I had to leash him when we got back to civilization.  Once we were back in the main area of the park, I put his leash on and we headed home.  He was exceptionally good on the walk back too.  It almost seemed that he didn't want to ruin the moment.

We got home and got in the car and went to get dog food. Back to ordinary life. The spirit of the morning stayed with me, though.  I did the ordinary things but they felt a little special.  I did some dishes, cleaned the stove, and, of course, fed Shady.  Shady believes I'm a god again, now that he's fed, and all is well with the world.  I have a feeling that the sparkle gained in the park will continue to color my ordinary life, at least for while.