Dogs have always appeared in my life to take me places. Orson brought me to Bedlam Farm. Rose helped me live here. Rocky, the blind pony, led me to our new home. And now, here, Red appearing out of nowhere to take me to yet another place.

Red is a magical creature, filled with power and complexity, work and love, strength and vulnerability. When we go out to work in the morning, he is transformed into an ancient and almost mystical spirit. I can only imagine what he would have meant to some shepherd struggling with his flock. When I get my new video camera, I will show you his very spectacular outruns. He circles the sheep so joyously, in such a burst of freedom and abandon, so fast and so wide, that it always stirs me to see it.

Karen told me he overruns a bit, and she was working on that, but I have to say I can’t correct it and don’t want to. In his runs around the sheep, Red shows me the way, to burst free of the shackles fear and convention place on our lives, to run and run with a joyous abandon. I could not train him out that. He always ends up where he ought to be. That is what inspires me.

To find the magic inside of myself and set it free. And run, run, run with it’s beating heart.