A Cowdogs Advice

Grip up, America!

joy

Joy

by

Just a few weeks ago, the meagre sun could not pull the temp above zero,

yet for a few days now, we have melting going on!

 

It is hard to believe everything can change so drastically, but isn’t this is a picture of life?

 

 

And as winter turns loose its frosty grip, I have this good feeling – it must be pure joy, rising like the temperature. Following kindness and hope then, I’m aiming for joy!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not that I don’t find plenty to enjoy any old time – darkness, cold, storms, struggles – I still count it all joy.

I am a Heeler, after all. 

 

 

 

 

 

Being a Heeler, I know about joy.

I suffer, as do most cowdogs of my kind, from irrepressible Joie de Vive; I don’t speak French much, but I’m told that means “delight in being alive.”

 

 

 

 

 

It means we find happiness,  jubilation, humor, glee, JOY in everyday moments and in everyday.

 

Sometimes in this life, it seems as if we are on the slickest sled on an icy slope, picking up speed, fast and out of control! 

 

It is a merciful thing, I suppose, that people don’t know what the future holds. Might as well just look forward with joy, I say.

 

It may be hard to look up with anticipation and insist on optimism. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just take a lesson from the Heeler, and count it all joy.

Chew on these truths like a good bone:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Attitude is the difference between an ordeal and an adventure.

 

Smile – there are a whole lot of problems out there in the world that aren’t yours.

No one is responsible for your happiness except you.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’m searching, and what do I find?

I find joy when I go out, light a bit earlier now, and smell the fresh air one more morning.

 

I laugh with joy at the antics of the wild turkeys, staging their spring courting dances in my yard – and I usually even resist the urge to herd them, and let them have their fun.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I find joy in a hundred little things –

the rooster crowing early,

The sun rising a little further north behind the high hills, a different glisten on the melting snow.

A fresh bone, a new treat, even a cat that wants to play with me.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The uplifting music the boss plays – sometimes I sing along!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Boots and paws with more mud than snow and ice. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Open water on the creek, no need to chop ice anymore.

 

 

Birds singing spring songs. Pussy willows threatening to burst open as the first new sign of life.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oh, I know we will still have a couple of winters before we see green grass and a truly warm sun,

 

 

but in it all, and all the storms life throws my way, this little cowdog will find joy!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Even if I have to dig for it.   

 

 

 

                                      This is the day which the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it. 

                                                                                                                                                                                                           Psalm 118:24

 

Still Joy to a New Gettin’up Morning

by

How swift time passes! Already we are starting another year, at least that’s what you humans do.

For us cowdogs, time just goes on, one paw in front of another, keeping an eye on the seasons and years passing as we watch out for you and do our job.

Here we are at another end, bringing the dawn of a new beginning.

I think you can start up anew every day, any day, but it is good to have this one, when the axis turns, this time to 2026.

 

 

Surely this past year has been tough for many.

Mercifully we missed a summer of drought and wildfires – but it wasn’t very far away.  Others had tornadoes and hurricanes. Some have struggled with illness, sorrow.

 

We need to gut it out, grip up, carry on.

 

 

 

But we can do it with JOY! Because we have been given one more moment, one more day, perhaps one more year. At this dawn of a grand new year, let us expect pure triumph!

 

 

Mom hasn’t had to start chopping the ice on the creek so the cows can drink, feed extra, or collect eggs more often so they don’t freeze.  But it does seem like it is dark all the time, although happily we have past the shortest day and  add moments of daylight each day, even though it is imperceptible still.

 

 

It may be a tough, dark, cold time, but we carry on. We just cowboy up, as my dad would say. What else is there to do, but to charge forward with joy and hope?

 

Time flies.

 

 

Some of us won’t be here to see another sunrise, or the next new year.

 

But there will be new ones to welcome.

 

 

 

Sometimes it is like we are on the slickest sled on an icy slope, picking up speed, fast and out of control!

It is a merciful thing, I suppose, that people don’t know what the future holds. Might as well just look forward with joy, I say.

 

 

Being a Heeler, I know about joy. I suffer, as do most cowdogs of my kind, from irrepressible Joie de Vive; I don’t speak French much, but I’m told that means “delight in being alive”.

It means we find happiness,  jubilation, humor, glee, JOY in everyday moments and in everyday.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

With joy, or maybe a cause of it, is hope.

 

 

 

There is hope in: sunshine, longer days, bare roads and climbing temperatures.  We have none of those things right now, but they will come. It is a blessing to have a little less cold, a sunny day, a plowed road. Other times, there is hope in rain, or friends, or a job, or the end of a storm. All the promise a new day brings, anytime of the year. I guess hope is faith, is trust in God who after all has a handle on all our stuff.

 

I know something about hope. I have chased cows through mud, snowdrifts, rocks only to have them scatter. I’ve been kicked and rolled down banks, I’ve hurtled through sagebrush and gravel, fallen off four-wheelers …just plain knocked down over and over.

It is hope – and a big dose of Heeler grit – that gets me up and back at it. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I bet there is someone out there right now that needs hope, and this cowdog is here to tell you to HOLD ON! Grasp hope and faith, with all the grit you can!

A cowdog’s trials are a little different than yours, but it is still the same inner grit that stands you up and makes you soldier on.  I will lend you my grit and hope, if you are a little low right now. Ask any Heeler out there – we all have it to share.

 

Now we have the full January “Wolf Moon”.

 

 

One of many names, it comes from Celtic, Old English, Colonial or Native history, and is probably related to hearing wolves howl on cold, long, dark nights. I’m sure that is worse than coyotes, and I do not like hearing them at all!

 

 

 

 

 

 

As we have a sunset to end the day,     

 

 

 

 

 

 

So  every sunrise brings fresh hope for the new day we are gifted.

 

 

 

I didn’t see midnight to ring in the New Year, but Joy to the world, and to all my friends!

May you awake with joy and hope.

It is next year!

 

“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him.” – Romans 15:13

 

A special Thank You to JB Myers Photography, who supplies many of the excellent shots we use on Cowdogs Advice.