Turner’s Legacy

Turner…

My family and I raised several dogs for the Guiding Eyes for The Blind organization. He was our 4th to grace our lives. And grace it, he truly did.  He was placed in our care as a 10 week old puppy and after a year of obedience lessons with us, was on his way back to the organization’s center in Yorktown Heights, N.Y.. This photo was taken just before he was returned to the hands of our very capable district coordinator for the long trip to the training center, where he would undergo rigorous testing to see if he was guide-dog potential.

I learned many lessons in raising the puppies that were entrusted to us.  Though we received a puppy of the Labrador Retriever breed, the personality of each dog, always very easy going and entertaining, was endearing to us by their quirky subtle differences in personality.  As children from the same parents differ in personality, so did each puppy, and, oh, the stories I could tell about each one.  I also learned many things about myself, some good, some not so good. Once believing that I was a really good rule-follower, try as I might, I could not overcome the challenge of the rule that the puppy was not allowed on furniture (or cozy laps) and, there’s no doubt about it, the many photographic evidences of those infractions would, yes, prove me guilty.

There were other rules, too…though it was highly frowned upon by the powers-that-be in the Guiding Eyes organization for a puppy to, at any time, be off-lead, on the morning of each dog’s ‘surrender’, it was my practice with each dog to let them off lead for one ‘freedom run’ at my in-laws home where a field, a running stream, and an abundance of sticks would, for a few minutes, ease my heart and maybe make a small dent in the boundless energy a labrador retriever has for any adventure…and for Turner, this photo marks that day.

From the very moment you receive a puppy from Guiding Eyes to raise, you know,  without a doubt that this puppy does not belong to you.  You also know that this puppy has been carefully gleaned from several litters and chosen because of certain strengths that it has shown, and organizational preferences found in the puppy that shows it to be a strong candidate for the purpose for which its future potentially holds…but just try to tell that to your heart when it’s time to say good-bye.

I look back on this 24 year old photo and I feel the emotion of the moment like it happened this morning – Turner, enthralled with his freedom and me trying to keep a stiff upper lip while trying to hold back a flood of tears. I still feel the conflict of sadness in having to say good-bye and the sweet joy of watching him, completely and utterly abandoned to the moment of a sunny day, the chase of a stick and just being a dog. But, it’s more than the photo and more than the memory, although certainly both have some merit. Writing a blog about either the memory or the photo would not seem worth the time and energy. But the lesson Turner taught me on that fall day in 1994 was ruminating within me and it needed a ‘freedom run’…

It wasn’t until a friend announced that she would soon be returning to her homeland of Scotland, when this old photo popped up in my remembrances and brought a flow of tears with it…I shared the remembrance with her, hoping, PRAYING, that she would not be offended that my memory of saying good-bye to a dog was triggering or contributing to the sadness of saying good-bye to her.  She assured me, most lovingly, that she was not. But people and new opportunities approach us every day.  True enough, some pass us by, but some, assigned their God-ordained journey, for a season are brought to a path that converges with ours and we walk together.   How sweet it is that God allows this, but how easily our hearts forget that they are not on our path, but His. Then that day comes when it’s time to surrender….to surrender to the reality that though they’re still walking with us, God is calling them away to further His purposes for their futures and His glory.  All these things you know…you’ve ALWAYS known, but suddenly what your head has always known, your heart has the daunting task of processing and accepting.

What I believe God has taught me is that I can react to this dilemma in two ways – I can allow my heart to grow cold and harden for the pain I feel in surrendering, and as a result, leave me cut off from any other opportunities to embrace those whose paths cross or converge with mine. Or, I can, with gratitude, (and maybe some leaky eyes) treasure the nuances of their personalities, the generosity of God’s blessings experienced in the time spent with them, the lessons they have taught me, and share in the joy of their God-ordained future – their heart open and ready for the next step in fulfilling God’s purpose for them and my heart open and ready for what He has for me.

And just as there would be other dogs to follow Turner, (with more lessons, too) I know there will be more people like my Scottish friend and more opportunities still to approach me in the days to come on my God-ordained journey while on this earth. God is always graceful and faithful that way.  Am I ready? I getting there.  It’s probable that you didn’t need a labrador retriever such as Turner to teach you these lessons of the heart, but I know I did. God works in mysterious ways, doesn’t He?