Knowing When to Chase the Dream and When to Ignore It.

Pictured here is our great dane named Gracie. In her mouth is the shoe of our nephew Reed who was visiting us over the Thanksgiving holiday. Gracie likes to play, but she has a hard time understanding the kind of things that are appropriate toys. The more we shout at Gracie, the more we chase Gracie, the more Gracie thinks keeping the shoe from us is actually a game. The only way we can convince Gracie to let go of this shoe is to grab another toy and play with it, ignoring the shoe and Gracie. I realize we are using reverse psychology on a dog--acting as if something other than the shoe is more important to us--but for some reason, it works! Gracie let go of this shoe when we presented a rope and played with it as if we had no interest in the shoe. Out comes the shoe from Gracie's mouth, and here she comes after the rope! There's a moral to this story:

Sometimes we get those things we really want by representing indifference.

Wisdom is knowing when to go after the shoe and when to ignore it. Just a thought gleaned from the relationship we have with my daughter's dog.

In His Grace,

Wade