Knowing Your Home Well

 I watched a short one minute video today that brought tears to my eyes. No…it had nothing to do with my grandson, it was just a random video that popped up on Instagram. If I were more tech savvy I could have posted it here on this blog, but I’ll have to rely on my writing skills to tell you about it and you can recreate the picture in your mind.

Someone is standing at the front door of his house. He opens the door and lets his beautiful Golden Retriever out the front door, then films him walking down the steps alone, away from the camera. The front yard of the house is beautifully manicured. There’s a lush lawn and a lovely curving aggregate walkway that curves around into the large driveway which leads down to the asphalt street. The Golden makes his way down the curved walkway then down the wide empty driveway all the way to where the driveway meets the street. Then the dog lowers its head and begins sniffing the ground, walking back and forth in a circular motion until he finds the morning newspaper in a clear plastic bag. He immediately picks up the newspaper in his soft mouth, lifts his head playfully and begins jogging back up the driveway, turning left at the winding walkway until he finally reaches the steps of the porch where his human is still filming this cute but quite ordinary scene.

Then the dog starts up the steps, but you notice that he is headed straight for a big potted plant on the edge of the top step. The very good dog stops, then moves slightly to the side and for the first time you see it…two empty sockets where eyes used to be. This Golden Retriever was blind. 

This gorgeous creature had lost his sight at some point of its life, but knew its home so well, so completely, he knew the way to the street and back from memory. He also had a family that didn’t consider him somehow less than because he couldn’t see, but chose to love and care for him anyway.

The video ends and I am undone.

I thought of many things. I thought of the many dogs who are abandoned and abused by human beings every day. I thought of how people with disabilities are so often marginalized by this world. And, I thought of that beautiful little grandson of mine and hope and pray that he will always know his home so well, that not only will he know his own home, but the home of his grandparents— so well that he could find his way around by memory.

So, to whoever posted that amazing video I say, thank you for loving that very good boy, and reminding the rest of us of the importance of…home.