HEART THOUGHS from Helen

LESSONS LEARNED AT THE END OF A LEASH (Part 2)

“He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand.” Psalm 40:2 NIV

Duchess joined our family around the same time that adolescence arrived for me. She derived her heritage from the Heinz 57 family. She was black as the ace of spades and apparently acquired some shepherd and some lab in her ancestry. Duchess, though a medium sized friendly dog tried her best to keep up with whatever went on at our country home. She dearly loved to go rambling around the country side where we lived on my Granddaddy Goodson’s farm in Oswego, South Carolina. She loved to follow my Daddy when he drove the tractor. She loved to go down the lane with Momma and me to gather eggs from the chicken coops. But the singular thing that I remember about Duchess, my dog, was that she dearly loved flopping down in any mud puddle she came across. I can see her now just plop right down and smile all over herself, long pink tongue hanging out the side of her mouth, happy as she could be. Momma would fuss and I would get to hose her off until the next time.

Isn’t it funny the things we remember about our pets? I wish I had a picture of Duchess to show you how happy she was in the mud puddle. You’d have thought she was part pig. She did not, however, endear herself to us when she chose to run up and shake her muddy self all over us.

What did I discover from Duchess?

• Mud Puddles can serve a purpose
• Duchess taught me that it is the simpler things of life that make us happy.
• Flopping down in a mud puddle beats running around like a chicken with its head cut off
• Mud puddles are for cooling off sometimes. They may not be the most attractive way to relax but they surely can help the immediate heat of a situation.
• Dogs named Duchess may not act like the royalty the name implies, but they get the job done nonetheless
• Dirty is a relative term. To Duchess being muddy meant nothing more than temporary comfort from the heat of the day. She knew I’d wash her up and she’d be soot black and shiny again.
• Don’t stay in the mud puddle too long and be compared to the “sow that is washed goes back to her swallowing in the mud.” (2 Peter 2:22b) NIV and end up lazy, listless and at loose ends.
• And by all means, when you’ve been in the mud puddle, don’t run up to your friends and shake your mud all over them.