to the winery and beyond

jesse and the kids

some of my favorite sadie memories are of taking her to the tiger mountain winery, a treasure of north greorgia. after having a healthy sampling of their yummy wines and purchasing a bottle or two for good measure we would go outside and bask in the fall sun, watching sadie running free over the green fields, her ample jowels flopping in the wind. all the while we are enjoying another glass with a fine picnic lunch. it's been a few years since we've made the trip and sadie is a much older girl now with many grey whiskers and a limp-ridden, but highly spirited gait. and you could see her years in the way she behaved, running, but not as much. preferring to make new friends with other picnickers eager to scratch her belly, and laying down on a blanket  in the shade with david. i have been avoiding facing sadie's years with a comical, but persistent denial. comments made about her changing muzzle are generally greeted with something like, "you shut your mouth. she's just a baby." a joke, but not really. 

this weekend we took our first vacation as a changing family, new baby and aging pup. as daddy played with david, i stole a few moments to lie in the grass under the fall sun and spy on my sweet sadie. i didn't have my camera but made a conscious effort to take a photograph with my mind, watching her, the changing her, enjoying freedom, enjoying company, enjoying life. it was a rare moment for me to be fully present, fully engaged, fully accepting. i am a doer, always on the move, trying to change something or make something. i cloud moments by trying to alter them, just a little this way or that, but in this moment, everything just simply was, and it was beautiful.