Sometimes you just have to choose

So here’s how it goes.  Most days when we walk, Gus brings a ball along.  There’s always at least some part of our journey when we are in an open field.  I throw and he fetches for a while, and for the rest of the time he loves to carry his ball in his mouth.  He is, after all, part retriever.

Gus is very attached to his ball, and he will run back and search for it if he’s dropped it in the grass.  Even when he is panting, he will carry his ball in his mouth for the rest of the walk, despite the fact that this limits his ability to cool off properly.

Every once in a while, something interesting happens.  We might be out in the middle of the field or at the park, and Gus will discover another abandoned ball lying in the grass.  He’ll drop his original ball and stand over the new discovery for a while.  Sometimes I can almost hear his thoughts as he looks at the two balls, trying to decide what to do.  He clearly weighs the merits of each one, and often looks up at me as if to ask, “which one should I choose?”

On rare occasions, he will try to pick up both balls in his mouth.  This is hilarious and usually doesn’t last for very long -it makes for very difficult breathing!  Most often he will make his choice, and pick up one of the balls to carry for the rest of the walk, leaving the other one in the grass.  I’m always amazed because he will usually abandon his own ball; the one he was originally so committed to, in favour of the new discovery.

So, I guess you’re wondering what this all has to do with me.  Well, if you’re following my blog, you will have noticed my original commitment to post something every day.  You might be thinking that I’ve already fallen off the wagon -not having made a post yesterday, after only three days!  Now, maybe this is just me justifying my failure to post, but it kind of happened like Gus with the ball.  I had to make a choice.

My original intent was to sit down and write after dinner.  My very special cousins came over for dinner, and we had a lovely visit, including dessert with my Mom & Dad.  I had mentioned that I wanted it to be an early night, as I had some work and blogging to do.  After dinner, my cousins and I, along with two of our grown-up daughters, sat around the table chatting for a long time.  They kept offering to leave, but I encouraged them to stay.  We don’t get together like that often enough, and we were having such a great time catching up, and talking about life, blogging, passion, and following your creative dreams.  It was an energizing conversation, and it encouraged me to believe that I have started something worth pursuing.  The only catch was that by the time they left and I cleaned up, it was very late.

I finished some work that I had to do, and by the time I sat down to write the post that had been percolating in my head, it was well past midnight.  I wrote for a while, but I could really see that I was not at my best.  I felt like Gus, weighing the merits of the two balls.  Ball one: stay up even later, finish writing, and post something that I wasn’t really proud of, just to meet my commitment.  Ball two: accept that I had chosen instead to spend some special time with very special people, pack it in and miss a day of posting.

Well, I guess you can see the choice I made.