Life Lesson: Dog and Opossum

I went out this morning to take care of my outside dog. It's summer here and hot and humid. I make a big ice cube for him from a bucket of water I freeze and put it in his water bowl in the late morning.

He whimpers at me and I know this whimper... it means, "Look Mom". It's kind of similar to his worried whimper. He was telling me he did a "thing" and he was wondering if that "thing" was a Good "thing" or a Bad "thing". He hopped under the clubhouse part of the swing set and sniffed at an object on the ground.

Yeah, that's a young opossum. It's dead. He didn't want me to take it from him, and I really didn't want to. I'm not sure what the next step will be. I'm not sure he'll eat it.

The circle of life, right in my backyard.

While wondering what will come of this surprise, I find myself sitting back and doing nothing. Again. Time has always sorted some things out for me. It's why I'm such a terrible decision maker. Watching how things play out is how I roll. Sometimes you don't need to jump in and "fix" things.

Sometimes you do. Don't play opossum on all your problems, laying back, pretending you have nothing to with them. You might get caught up in your own trap.

Lies by omission are still lies.

Inaction is still taking a side.

Letting things happen is no way to live life.

I'm taking note of this poor opossum's demise to remind myself that I have to be more like the dog; going out and getting what I want. I just won't have to kill my prey...

Weekend Fun

My nephew came over to spend the weekend with us. We decided we couldn't just stay home, so we spontaneously decided on a road trip to Nashville, IN, Bloomington, IN and the places in between, like the Spencer Walmart where we stop to restroom on the way.

This time, however, we decided we wanted to add a little hike and we went to Brown County State Park. You drive up and up through the trees to tops of the hills and suddenly there will be a lookout over the rolling foothills of Indiana created long ago by glaciers in the Ice Age which melted and eroded the land into gullies and streams.

We enjoyed the Nature Center with the taxidermied animals and the live snakes and glass-walled beehive. Then we took our little hike.

We were very exhausted after all the walking, but we next spent time in College Mall and after dinner, found out there was a Half Price Books Outlet. Score!

http://business.simon.com/leasing/college-mall

Now we couldn't feel our bodies and wanted nothing but sleep. Then on Sunday I had church, we went to a birthday pool party where we swam even though we were tired. I called my Dad to wish him a Happy Father's Day, and then I had VBS!

We danced, sang, and played games where we hopped on one foot back and forth. I was so tired when I got home.. I think I am STILL tired. My dreams were weird and filled with school and anxiety and that is just not right for summer!!

I'm looking forward to another week of writing, transcripting, maybe video, webinar-ing, and lesson planning for school. After that, there might be another weekend of hiking fun...