Unleashed Walking

Taking the day to get re-acclimated to the tropics, I was nevertheless determined to keep up a daily walk of some sort.   I set out this morning, armed with an old golf club and instructions on how to counter-intimidate the non-stop stream of barking boonie dogs that ubiquitously petrol Guam.  I was delighted that the large bear of a dog currently living with the Owens, joined up with me.  I smiled thinking about recent walks in Boulder Creek with good friends -- our three dogs tangling their leads as they criss-crossed around us. Periodically I pretended to pick up stones to signal the boonie dogs to back off.  I was relieved that they accepted my feint and retreated to their own territory leaving the challenges incomplete. Then again maybe it was just the presence of the gentle giant loping amiably beside me.  He needed no leash and I did not even know his name.

      An aggressive restraint comes when a leash is broken. Unfettered and free, this beast moved confidently back and forth choosing to stay close, occasionally nudging, never pushing.  It was different.  As different as the hot windy humidity slowing, slowing my own pace. A necessary pace of letting go.  The lag of time, unleashed in me as the date line was breached, urges me to a less constrained reality.    I suspect that the subtle nausea that always seems to come with the lost days of hours is from trying to hold on too tightly to time.  I must trust how it moves and how He will use me in these moments.  There is no need to pretend,  because I have learned to embrace that event saturated reality,  more and more each time I come here.   The event immediacy that will not be tethered to a clock.   Tomorrow, God willing I will head on to campus to prepare for class starting on Friday.   Unleashed working is very different.