lessons from a dog

Earlier in the year I was on my way to college in a friend's car when we saw a small dog running for his life down the other side of the road with a long line up of cars behind him driving very slowly. I guess he had somehow gotten onto the road and now he was running to keep up with the cars and trying not to get run over. Poor puppy, his tongue was hanging out and he looked so tired. If he had just stopped and looked around he may have realised that he just had to escape onto the footpath (trans: sidewalk) and he would have been safe. But he just kept on running, I guess cause he didn't know what else to do. Or maybe he was enjoying the chase and thought it was all a game? We drove off and I'm not sure how that situation eventually resolved itself. I really hope he didn't get run over when he got to the intersection.

Since I've been back in Australia, I've noticed how our lives are often that way. We try to keep up with life and just keep on running hard in an effort not to get run over. But if we just STOP and look around, we'll see that there is an alternate route and that we're able to get off the treadmill (mixing metaphors now). Life here is so much busier than in China. People are on the go ALL the time and don't seem to have much time to rest. People seem to be valued not for who they are but for how much they are doing and contributing. It seems that most things here are based on schedules and activities rather than relationships and community.

So we keep running cause all we can do is look straight ahead, rather than look around. And it may kind of seem like we're surviving till we get to a crossroad...

I hope that in your life, you are finding time to stop, rest and look around at other alternative routes if the road you're on is too much for you.