Looking Out My Back Window #57

Originally posted on Facebook HERE

Thinking a bit about faith today. “Leaps of faith” in particular, I guess. Otherwise maybe known as decisions based on gut instinct. I walked Gizmo last night after my run, and was just overwhelmed with gratitude. Beautiful night. Love where we live. Great little dog we have. And I started thinking about how it is that this little guy, born in Texas, will live out his life with us – and what had to line up to get him here. Totally crazy series of events. Somehow, Gizmo wound up in a high kill shelter in Texas, where a rescue in Kansas found him and went and got him (Chasing Tails Rescue). Chasing Tails posted a photo on Facebook once he was available. Now, neither my wife or I had ever heard of their shelter. Neither of us had “liked” their Facebook Page. But, we had one friend in Kansas who knew them, and somehow through that association Laurie saw the photo. This was 1-2 months after we lost Cosmo, and we were so heartbroken we weren’t really looking very hard for a new friend. Then, Laurie had to make the decision to show me the photo. I’ll never forget her coming into my home office with her phone, and saying: “look at this dog”. What a great photo it was (posted below). She knew once I saw it, we might be getting a new dog. So I found the shelter on Facebook, but at the time their address wasn’t listed in the “about” section. Where were they located? At that time, all we knew was this was a really cute dog we were interested in, we had no idea where he was. In the comments I finally figured out they were in Great Bend, Kansas. A google search told us that was twelve hours away from us by car. Ouch. But… that photo. So – I contacted the shelter (on a Sunday, of course). How would/could we get this dog? We’d have to fill out an application, and there was a small fee once we got him. And then, there would be logistics – when could we take a couple days to do this? How could we raise a puppy with our schedules? What if we drove twelve hours, met the dog and didn’t like him? Turns out the person who took the photo was also his foster. The owner of the shelter put us in touch with her and she talked to us, told us how good Gizmo was with kids, sent us photos and videos, and we took a leap of faith. We submitted an application, and left it in God’s hands. If we were approved, we were going to Kansas, somehow. Monday morning we were approved. Laurie and I canceled everything on our schedules for that Thursday & Friday to drive twelve hours to Kansas, meet two of the coolest people on earth (Amy & Chris, who help save many, many animals every year), spend the night in a hotel, and drive twelve hours back the next day with our new puppy. So much of this was just based on gut instinct. And it changed all of our lives forever. We made new friends. We are huge supporters of their rescue. We had other friends from WI adopt from them. And, last night, walking in the sunshine, with my little pal Gizmo, I got to be overcome with gratitude for everything life has to offer. We can do, and be, and accomplish so much when we get out of our own ways and surrender to the opportunities presented to us. Change is never easy, but the closer we get to God and his will for us, the better we get at recognizing that there are times in life we have to throw caution to the wind and follow our hearts. It is so often those moments that are magical. Turning points. We need to stay open and recognize when we’re being guided, and remain open to doing something that on paper maybe makes little sense. Because lives aren’t lived on paper. Lives are lived in our hearts. Make sure you’re creating one that is expansive and loving, and go ahead – take that “leap of faith”. It might make all the difference…