A Dog in Panic Mode

I'm sitting at the edge of the lake. It's been a rough morning. While I waited for my food to microwave, I killed the time by using the blood pressure machine as I do nearly every day. Today was by far the best reading I've had since I started regularly checking it. This was a surprise to me considering the kind of morning I had. It wasn't raining, so I decided I'd bring my food out and eat it by the lake. When I got here, a couple was just leaving and we exchanged hellos. I've seen them before. They left and I stood there looking out over the lake and heard a strange wheezing noise. I thought it was a duck, but as it got closer, I realized it was a dog's head. The dog was swimming as fast as he could but the noise sounded like that of panic. I tried to figure out where the dog even came from. I silently cheered him on... 'You're almost there, buddy!'. I watched as his feet finally touched the bottom and I could see the tennis ball firmly clutched in his jaw. I waited on the bank, hoping he wouldn't run up to me and get me all messy. He didn't, he lit off down the path and not too long after, I heard the couple's laughter. I realized it was their dog and that I had seen them all together before. The guy has this strap-thing that allows him to launch the tennis ball way out in the water. I think the dog was really weary on the swim back and he could no longer see his people. That made me think... I could relate to the dog. The work seems difficult, sometimes we can't see the solid ground just a few inches below us, we may not have learned how to float/rest, we may not even realize there are people cheering us on, and sometimes the goal (or the people) we're trying to reach are out of sight.

But unlike the dog, we don't necessarily need to panic, we just need to stop and assess our surroundings. There are people cheering us on (not to mention God), it is ok to take a break, and sometimes what we seek is just over the hill out of sight.

Or course, there are probably times when we should take a look at how far out the bobbing tennis ball is and decide it is too far.

It's a quiet and calm day here at the lake. In all this time, none of my coworkers have made it out here, or they've been quiet and left again without disturbing me. A bird was chirping at me from a nearby bush and at the island about 20-feet from the shore a hawk or falcon has just landed on a tree branch. It's overcast and a little chilly and I can't help but wonder if I'll get rained on during my walk back.