Falling apart offers a huge benefit. You can decide how to put yourself back together—better.
Early in life, I feared blindness. The Deuce came into my life.
We were close to two miles from the road when Deuce, a sixteen-pound sheepdog lookalike chased a small animal across the road. He heard me coming through the woods after him. I ran nearly four mph with two other leashed up dogs. Deuce was faster.
That’s when he lost an eye thinking he could outwit a truck and get back across the road to me before I scolded him. The accident knocked out an eye, broke his back and two front legs. Normally a slow driver, I drove over 100 mph the ninety miles back to Anchorage.
Deuce had six surgeries and came home in a nearly complete body cast. He healed, but lost sight in his other eye. I became his seeing eye person, but not for long. He mapped out the house, our back yard, and our friends’ homes and yards. When we walked on the trails, deep in the woods, and I took him off leash to let him swim in the lake, he evaded the leash coming out of the lake and ran on the curving trail until I caught him–just to show me he could. Then the vet told me Deuce was deaf as well.
That’s when I stopped fearing (mostly). Stopped letting little things bother me (mostly). I have a way to go before I’m as brave as Deuce. The photo shows his “good” eye, though he can’t see out of it. He sees with his heart. I hope you have a Deuce in your life.
(c) 2023 Lynne Curry
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