Chapter 28 – Bright Spots

God Wants Us Happy

Matthew 11: 27-30

“Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I Am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.”

Mark 10:27

“And Jesus looking upon them saith, With men it is impossible, but not with God: for with God all things are possible.”

I had been pressing beyond my heartache to meditate on God’s Word and a favorite Passage from Psalm 16 verse eleven (11) was really popping off the page to me, “Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in Thy presence is fullness of joy; at Thy Right Hand there are pleasures for evermore.” It was a sparkly Light of Promise. I wearily fixed my eyes on Him even though I was under the weight of dozens of sedimentary layers of heaviness.

It was high time for a little joy and happiness. Peter and I prayed for just the right places and graces to find them. The Lord’s Kindness little by little led us along to much needed pleasurable experiences and a good water excursion with the river nearby and, a not too far away lake sure seemed like the ticket.  Both required road trips but Kaiyah was up for the fun adventure and without any concern for being cooped up in the back of our old SUV. 

The first river visit came on a windy day with friendly pairs of osprey working hard feeding their younglings and tending to nest cleaning duties. The tall white and black spectacular cosmopolitan raptors (and their already feathering children) were calling out to one another filling the air with high pitched cries. As the loud adult calls travelled through the air, especially from the closer parents on nest cleaning duty, the sounds were caught up in the swelling swishes of rustling tree leaves dancing around in the gusty wind blowing about - which was underscored by the accompaniment of the softer lower pitched quacking chatter of mallard ducks and their ducklings paddling about, as there was a little pond alongside the trail leading down toward the river. 

Kaiyah was excited yet maintained her self-control and did not pull us along. She patiently waited as Peter and I took our time taking it all in and, of course, Peter took a few photos. That was commendable husky behavior! We slowly made our way to the welcome dirt path that led to the rocky embankment near the shallow of the river.  When the woods stopped and the shoreline began, we stopped for a few minutes. In her usual way she went about closing her eyes, lifting her head high looking as if she might let out a long howl, took in multiple big sniffs - and stood nobly with the wind racing across her fur and the sun giving her just the softest little golden glow. 

When that moment was done she started to pull toward the water. After she cast an intense, “Furmommy mush!” glance, she went into all-paw drive mode. I was more than delighted to let her find her way to get those paws of hers into the cold clear river, swiftly burbling over the dirt and rock. She tilted her head toward the left and then to the right taking in the expanse of the flowing path she now had her paws under, and then took a good deep drink. Lapping up that cold water set her into a friskity splish-splash free-for-all and she wanted all in! Of course I had her on the retractable leash and set her loose but still on the line. Before I knew it she was swimming and heading right toward an old downed tree that had gotten stuck alongside a rock outcropping on the other side of the river, and was clearly trying to find a way to navigate around it. You could tell she was thinking about what to do and where to go.

I was doing my best to keep her leash line from finding something to get tangled on. You just never know what might be under the water. Slowly she paddled against the flow of the river and then must have realized that she had run aground and stood up and only had water up to her dog elbows. That look of recognition on her face was so funny! I could tell she was like, “Oh! Huh? That’s too shallow for me,” and she almost immediately turned right back toward the deeper area. After a bit she decided to head back our way but not without trying to get to the other side first. The leash couldn’t go out that far. However, the shoreline on that side was much shallower so she was walking about making sure she used every millimeter of that leash as she pulled for more line.  I think she must have realized I had no intentions of joining her on that side or that I would let her run loose. 

While still giving that steady pull pressure she glanced back my way standing perfectly still like she was asking one more time for furmommy to mush toward her or give more line, to which I responded with, “No Kaiyah honey, come back this way.” When she heard that she bounced her little body around and headed back into the river and made her way slowly toward us. When she came out of course she shook herself dry and tip-toed back toward the path through the woods. And then she politely led us back toward the area with the pond, ducks and ospreys with a very satisfied “mission accomplished” expression. She had patiently waited as we stopped here and there, admiring the trees and the little critters we spotted along the way while making note of foraging spots. She earned lots of good girl bonus points on that road trip - and enjoyed the treats when we arrived back home after a good thorough sniff and greet by Gideon and Pumpkin. It was a delightful trip...

Another bright spot we found with Kaiyah was a nice local man-made lake about an hour or so to the south of us. It was a mix of winding country roads and freeway (if we wanted to take it) and small agricultural byways. At that time it was much less developed as was much of the area when we first arrived. Now things seemed to be growing at breakneck speed and the roadways, local farms, and country charm we had moved there to enjoy was suffering immensely from it. Not the kind of progress I was looking for, nope!

The lake area was also a little conservation for wildlife. It was a gem when we found it and the little discovery center had lots of local history and wildlife information nuggets. Kaiyah once again found herself smitten by the sun sparkled water that rhythmically lapped along the shoreline. And this time the water was much deeper and wider than I think she had ever experienced; other than a visit to the Pacific Ocean years prior that she was both in awe of, and intimidated by. A skiff or two slowly putted along trying to not “wake” the waves or disturb the small paddling boats more in the middle of the lake. A couple of dinghies with sails hoisted trying to catch the wind blowing swiftly along the water’s surface. The lake had open beaches, marshes, and tree lined areas making it quite a joy to walk along and to observe and listen to the nice variety of local and migrating birds. We even spotted deer grazing!

Peter ever with his trusty camera was looking to, in particularly, capture the Red-winged Blackbird. Those birds seemed to tease Peter with their trills and whistle calls as if to signal him where to find them and then, play hide-and-seek becoming as elusive as a garden snake in tall grass when he was close.  It was fun to hear them, to spot one and to watch Peter trying to get pictures of them. Of course, when he did it was a lovely reward for his patient persistent determined delight to have that photo.

With the population growth near our home many of the birds have moved on or come less often so we do our best to put out multiple “welcome mats” of feeders, suet, scatter-scratch as Peter calls it, nectar for the hummingbirds, fruit and nut baskets, (Welcome Wagon would be proud) and flora and fauna suitable for hiding, resting, nesting, and courting. Of course, the pollinators, squirrels, and other critters respectfully have their place too. This was after all their home first. This provides Kaiyah, the kitties and us much curious fun and entertainment with the goings and comings.

As we walked along the learning trails we heard raptors overhead. Red-tailed hawks soaring high and swooping low and an osprey pair that had a large lakefront condo downwind of the discovery center. The migrating waterfowl were busy about wading, waddling and wave riding while chit-chattering. Everyone seemed to be enjoying the day. We sure were! Kaiyah had a few bursts of “scatter the bird” energy but we didn’t let her disturb them too much as some were nesting or had little ones. I tried to keep her occupied with tailie chases and brisk runabouts. She absolutely had to have her moments in the big water. This time she didn’t push to go out too far, but she did want to go out as far as she could and then swam parallel to the shoreline with me in tow. It must have looked kind of funny, if only I had water skis or a surfboard, who knows where she may have ventured!

We spent hours there; enjoying strolling about, fellowshipping and even had a little prayer and Bible time on one of the benches looking out over the lake-filled landscape. It did all of us good and Kaiyah, who didn’t mind the longer trip this time, had a good exhausted restful ride home and crashed after being warmly greeted and sniffed by the furboys. They almost always look like they are getting a debriefing on activities and such when we get home and that “mission trip” was no different. 

Finding those bright spots of happiness, discovery, and joy in living were so important and we were grateful. It’s not always an easy thing to find or want to find when you have a lost, burdened, broken or grieving heart but with God all things are possible. I had to keep choosing to trust that He really meant what He said in Matthew 11: 27-30, “Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I Am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.” Yes, I came to Him again, received His rest again. Took His yoke upon myself, and continued to learn of Him, indeed He is most meek and lowly in heart and I had once again found rest for my soul.  Now to stay there and give Him my burdens and the difficulties of my labor, and of those who have labored against my soul. Walking these out is a living work in progress with the Lord but progress in this case, His Kind of Progress, is especially good.

His Sparklie Light of Promise in Psalm 16 is certain. And Kaiyah, and our little furmily knew it as He so lovingly continues to show us the path of life, which is in Him, which He is, and that in His Presence is fullness of joy. At His Right Hand are pleasures, for ever more, that’s for real in ways we seem to only glimpse in this lifetime, and we have the trusting hope to enjoy discovering with Him for a very, very long eternity.

Kaiyah was already waiting for the next bright spot.

…Until we meet again…