Taking A Roll In The Smelly Stuff

I've been living the relative lap of luxury this week, house sitting for friends...one of the reasons my blogging has been a bit sporadic.

It's an odd dichotomy. In truth, although house-sitting for our friends in their VERY BIG house is nice, it's not home. I'm more comfortable in my own bed. I am more comfortable in my own messy house.

To spare Erin the ordeal of caring for three dogs, we brought our two smallest dogs on this house sitting adventure. The yard is huge but it's not fenced and they're confused by their surroundings. Chaining them outside was a miserable failure from the start so Amy or I have to walk them on leashes several times a day, which is not too difficult since they're so small and the yard is SO BIG we can walk them and never leave the property.

A couple of times I have stopped at a little spot on the property where there is a stump surrounded by rosemary. I sit on the stump and have found myself praying and thinking - two things I often confuse with each other. The dogs play at my feet as I breathe in the sweet rosemary aroma.

Inevitably the dogs find a spot a few feet away where they smell something else. I'm not certain what it is - likely the remnant of something - but soon they start to roll in it.

I usually pull them away, because I'm sure it smells wonderful to them, but it probably won't smell too good to anyone else. It is the smell of decay or death or some other d word if you're being polite. For whatever reason their instinct is roll in it...there must be a certain familiarity to it that extends beyond time and place.

Sometimes I think maybe it's like home.

-------------------

Fish and family...my prayers are with you.


"Wherever your treasure is, there your thoughts and hearts will also be"- Luke 12:34