Friday’s walk with Suzie and Riley, my two golden retrievers, provided yet another lesson in Nature. I had cut through a field, following a path out in the middle of nowhere with trees to both sides of me. Suddenly Riley, who never leaves my side, tore off in hot pursuit of something. Judging from the intensity of her chase, I knew this was not our commonplace rabbit, bird, or deer. Frustrated with myself that I hadn’t paid closer attention in this predawn hour, now I could not see the object of her pursuit. When she completely vanished out of sight, I called loudly to her. Finally she returned to my side, but only momentarily, as if to check to see if I was OK. Immediately she turned and once again darted away out of sight, Suzie following her.
All of a sudden a terrifying, piercing scream filled the air. Oh my God, one of them is hurt! I yelled for them to come back, and in relief I saw one, then the other…only this time there was something else barking off in the distance. At first I thought it was a dog, but it didn’t take long to realize this was no dog. Its bark was so creepy. Suzie and Riley were now at my side, and the animal was rapidly approaching, closer then closer, with a bark that sounded like something in a horror movie.
I immediately turned to get out of that field as fast as I could. I paused only long enough to pick up a solid 4 ft tree limb to use in defense. I ran and ran as hard as I could, and all the while this animal eerily circled, one howl after the other after the other. The air was so cold, and I was breathing so hard that my chest burned. I was totally panicked. The harder I ran, the closer it got, staying just a few yards away from me. It could see me, but I could not see it. At one point I thought I would call my brother who lives not far away, but decided it would be too late by the time he got there, so I kept running as hard as I could run…and the animal continued to circle us. When I got out to the main road, I cut through an opposite field and continued running till the horrifying sounds stopped. I paused only long enough to catch my breath. My chest was on fire. Gratitude flowed through me like a river.
When I calmed down, I called my brother, an avid outdoorsman. When I described the animal sound and its pattern of circling us, he said it sounded like a coyote-dog, the mixture of which is more fierce than a plain coyote. He said they hate dogs, and it was probably more after the dogs than me. He then scolded me for running, which he said could have been disastrous. He then proceeded to tell me of some horror stories that he was aware of. He instructed me to never run, which only excites the animal to attack, and he told me to never be out in the wild like that without pepper spray or some means of protection.
I was reading a book over the weekend and a passage described the story of Daniel in the lions’ den. Trapped in a den with lions, one’s total attention would naturally be on the lions, but what did Daniel do? He turned his back on the lions, and the lions did nothing. Just reading the story made my heart pound all over again. I thought back to my experience and realized the courage that Daniel exemplified. The moral of the story: drop your attention from those things that you don’t want so that they fall away, and focus entirely on what you do want.
It occurred to me that as we travel through life, we have two choices. Either we decide to 1) face our fears head on, or 2) turn our attention and let them fall away. Today as you begin your week, notice what you give your attention to. Are you keeping a steady focus on what you want, confident that you will have it, or are you succumbing to fear, filling your soul with anxiety, worry, and dread? When you catch yourself falling into that trap, perhaps you can remember Daniel and turn your back on the fear. Then, as if by magic, watch whatever you focus on begin to grow.
