Cloud

"How sweet to be a Cloud
Floating in the Blue!
It makes him very proud
To be a little cloud."
(A.A. Milne)

It was a nearly perfect day, spent mostly away from home with very good friends. The sky was high and bright blue, mostly cloudless and warm warm warm. Although I would've loved to have taken Duncan to the zoo with us, it was not meant to be. While I spent most of the day walking back and forth between the elephant display and the Great Apes, very little of it was spent walking my dog. We did have some quality time this morning, though, and some good playtime at the park, tossing the stick, after we returned home. He was still quite bushed from yesterday's swim so our stroll this morning was leisurely and calm. I was a little concerned about getting everything done that had to be done before playing host to Kevi, Mike and The Boys and Duncan seemed to sense it. I was not as patient as I usually am (there were sheets to be washed, beds to be made, laundry to be folded and shopping still to be done!) but Duncan stopped dead in his tracks and turned his beautiful, freshly scrubbed face to the sky, closed his eyes and took a deep, long breath of Spring air. Floating above us in the perfect morning sky was a single little cloud and I smiled remembering the quote from Winnie the Pooh which appears on a coffee mug another good friend gave me twenty or so years ago. I took a Duncan Breath, a deep one and felt my stress melt away. After all, these are my oldest friends; so what if the pillow cases don't match the sheets! And I didn't mind that Duncan and I took our time getting back to the apartment afterward. There is much to be learned––and even more to be let go of––if we only take our time and enjoy the moment we're in, another lesson my dog seems to continually work at teaching me.