My post from October 25, 2019, told the story of Your True Nature, the company that has cornered the market on products that share advice from nature. I found their story appealing because I personally believe that great wisdom is found in ordinary people, places, events, and well…dogs.

Consider Grace, my recently adopted beagle. She has three nuggets of wisdom to share with you today.

The first one is this: Consider living in beagle time. Stop being so obsessed with the concept of never having enough time. Please knock off the whining about “too much work and too little time” or weekends being too short. And by the way, no one else cares about how Daylight Saving Time affects you.

In beagle time there is no rushing around to get from place to place. There is only moseying around while sniffing the air, the leaves, the grass. If you go twenty paces and suddenly realize you missed a spot, why you just go back before moving forward. In beagle time we’re not embarrassed when the same runners have passed us three times on the circular path around the park. Beagle time can be quite calming.

Secondly, be courageous! Don’t be fearful about taking on something bigger than you think you can handle. While many dogs enjoy fetching and gnawing on sticks, Grace hunts for whole branches she can drag around. Or she finds the kind of logs that work well in fireplaces. This actually ties directly into beagle time since when you’re dragging around something three times your size, your ability to move quickly is diminished.

The third bone of wisdom is culled from something that just happened. No matter how far away you go, never lose sight of home.

Today we had to be out of town several hours so I hired a wonderful service (My Pet’s Friend) to come to our home to pick up Grace and take her for a walk down our country road. In our meet-and-greet initial meeting, I had warned Missy (the dog walker) about beagle time and advised that when her timed walk reached the midpoint, she would likely have to pick up Grace and literally turn her around. Otherwise, that twenty-minute walk could turn into two hours.

When we arrived home, I read Missy’s note about her visit. She advised that she had attempted to walk Grace down our road, but ended up instead making several loops around our property. You see, Grace wouldn’t go very far from home. In Missy’s words, “Grace didn’t want to lose sight of her house.”

Since we don’t know Grace’s back story of why she was surrendered to the Fauquier SPCA Shelter, I would only be guessing at what was going through her little beagle brain.

But maybe it was that there really is no place like home.