I was petting and snuggling with my dogs the other day and thinking about when Piper the beagle was a puppy. This was before we got Asia the mix heeler beagle. So many afternoons Piper and I would run around the back yard chasing each other. Barking, tussling, play fighting. It’s been a few years since then and now Piper is content to sniff things, chase rabbits when she sees one, and be sneaky about snatching up people’s food if they leave it out! So I started to wonder: do Piper and Asia think about when they were young? Do they wonder about the future?
My best guess is that they think mostly about what’s going on right now. They’re always in the moment. They aren’t remembering when they were puppies peeing on the kitchen floor, running through the water at low tide, barking at other dogs at a Nashville dog park. Similarly, and unlike humans, I don’t think they’ve thought a single second about their age, what happens in the afterlife, or how they don’t move as quickly or playfully as they used to. Well, Asia still plays and runs around like a pup.
It makes me happy to know they’re living each day as if they’ll live forever. In their minds we are together now and for the rest of time. And ya know what, they’re right.
Together now and for the rest of time.
-Out of the Wilderness
Out of the Wilderness 