This past week I went to our local grocery store after work. This pickup full of pooches was parked several hundred yards from the store’s entrance. All four pups were focused on the place they had last seen their pet parent…..the entrance to the grocery store. Besides myself, several other shoppers stopped, pointed to the dogs and chatted about how calmly they were waiting. They weren’t barking at strangers walking by, they weren’t wrestling with each other, even when I took this photo (I had to approach the truck from my parking spot) the brown and white dog laying on the tool trunk lifted it’s head, barked 2 or 3 times but never took its eyes off the entrance doors.
NOW THAT’S BEING FOCUSED.
It started me thinking, ‘what (if anything) am I focused on?’. I have had periods in my life when I have been focused… learning about being a first time mom, going to graduate school, hosting a mile-marker celebration of someone’s life, getting our unfinished cabin liveable. But I had to admit, right now in this chapter of life, I am not focused on anything. I found myself feeling sad at that conclusion.
I could find some areas to focus on… loose my 5 pounds of winter weight, get back to jogging, finish a few craft projects…blah, blah, blah. These ‘goals’ neither looked like nor felt like anything close to the focus these pups had as they waited for their owner to return. Although I don’t have an ‘owner’ exactly like the dogs…I am committed to my spiritual journey and serving my God and the people He brings across my pathway in life. I am no where as focused as those pups, but perhaps this is an answer to my focus question for the next chapter of my life. How about you? Questions to Consider….
- What in your past has captured your focus? Does it still capture you?
- How much of your focus has been good for you/others ? Hurt you/others?
- What could be different for you/others if you were half as focused as the pups in my picture?
- What do you need to do next…to have that kind of focus in your life?
startstrongfinishwell 
Recently, I found myself in a chapter of life without focus and it was depressing. I had built my life around being a professional in several different kinds of work places. It seems like that was not only my focus, but was also my identity. Without that, I wondered who I was outside the context of what I did. I really felt lost for awhile. The way back for me was to ponder who God had made me to be. The focus doesn’t feel as intense, but it does feel like I am relaxing with who I am. It is changing my spiritual life to one of contentment instead of striving. Like the dogs in the picture, they had focus but were not striving to make anything happen; merely waiting for the return of their master. I am surrendering to this approach to life.
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Susan, thanks for sending me these insights. I especially like this one and the spiritual implications of focusing on my master. What a great illustration those dogs are! The picture is perfect! Love, Fran
Sent from Fran’s iPad
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