Month: January 2018

“Circles”
Or the different ways we live.
I don’t think I will tire of being with these dogs. Looking at the relationships between my son Sam, in this photo, and the dogs, you can see the depth of their care and connections. It comes from years of Sam “living and working” with dogs, and it is the very interesting nature of the individual dogs.
Its funny, but when I was younger I never thought I would spend so much of my days with dogs, working and living. I was a shy youth who at one time was really into horses. But here we are on a homestead with sheep, poultry, and dogs, mostly Border Collies. That all takes time away from time with Family and friends and doing other activities. Farm type living is intensive as is running your own business. Recently my circles got moved or changed. I gave up my part-time mail delivery work for substitute teaching at the local elementary school. My circle, or one of them, was moved from the old mail route to a building were lots of little kids and their educator’s intensively “live”, Monday through Friday.
I think back to a few years ago when a colleague gave me a New Yorker article on ” Circles”. It was written by an NYC dog owner and it talked about how people go between different social networks or don’t. That article made an impression on me. It made me aware of how I love to visit the different communities we do goose control in. It expands my ” world.” The article got me interested to see what different people find important in their lives. For some, Family is all, others it all about dogs, others sports, others it’s about the relationships they have in their Town. But more to the reality of the thing, it’s about how different people move in and out of social circles, which ones they spend the most time in, which circles are kept at a distance. It’s easy to feel someone who operates differently from you is somehow wrong. That farmer are social recluse, that dog or horse people are nuts or that people who spend most of their time with Family are tribal. But actually, maybe most people want to move in a variety of circles, we just only have so much time and care to give. I would be interested in how much of this is ” wiring” or learned behavior, experience, or how we individuals make different choices or follow different passions. Maybe, in the end, its that we find our own way, to be, happy, fulfilled, or just make every day happen.