I was walking the dog recently and had an interesting experience. We were at the school playground, a place we have been walking regularly since we got him over a year and a half ago. He loves to sniff and investigate all the new smells each time we go.
As per usual, his nose was leading the way, sniffing each blade of grass along his path. He wasn’t looking where he was going, and inadvertently ended up walking along the top of a narrow retaining wall. By the time he looked up, he was probably 6 or 8 feet off the ground in an area where it was too narrow to turn around — and too high to jump down.
He tried to crane his neck and look behind him. He peered cautiously around the corner. He looked at me. He had no idea what to do. He was stuck.
Luckily, from my vantage point on the ground, 8 feet below him, I could see that if he kept walking forward, he would reach a point where he could easily hop down — a one or two foot jump instead of 8. But he couldn’t see that from his view point. He didn’t have the same perspective.
I encouraged him to keep walking. To keep looking ahead and moving forward, even though he wasn’t sure where he was going. He couldn’t see that the end was in sight, but he trusted me to lead him there.
Just a good reminder to keep moving forward — especially when we feel stuck. We can’t always see what lies ahead, but sometimes we have to just trust that if we keep moving forward, we’ll end up where we truly need to be.
