A Joyful Gift

Some of the most play filled moments I have recently spent in my life was the hour I spent with a sled dog team while at a Summer Sled Dog camp in Juneau, Alaska. The dogs work hard, but more than that they love what they do. The joyful cacophony can be heard when they realize it is time to run and can only be fully appreciated in the hearing of it as they strain on their leads ready to run.  This poem is to celebrate the gift they gave me of their pure joy.

A Joyful Gift

Loud, joyful, ready.
Ready to run,
Ready to work.
Ready to take pure joy in their calling.

Eager to make a new friend,
A little girl a magnet for
the attention of sniffs and licks
and even a playful tackle.

Pure joy that is what I see.
That is what I hear.
Joy in the work of the pulling of the sled.
Joy in the freedom to run.
Joy in doing what they are made for.

I could take a lesson from them
In what it means to find pure joy
In a calling.

But for today I will simply accept their gift to me.
Of laughter.
Of play.
Of pure joy.