For the border collie, life’s outruns are limitless, they extend to the horizons. Yesterday, I took Red up to the top of the world for my morning walk, he was mesmerized by the broad and beautiful and seemingly boundless hay field. I couldn’t resist, “come bye,” I said, and he took off to run the field clockwise. In a few minutes, he had vanished over the horizon and I worried for a moment that he would keep running, all the way to Vermont. But eventually he appeared, running the boundary to my right, almost out of sight. “That’ll do, boy!” I should into the wind, and eventually he heard me and swung towards me, excited, eyes aglow.

There is nothing a working border collie would rather do on the earth than run a beautiful wide field like this. I am inspired by Red to look at life in this way, the horizons, the outruns are there for me, every day, also. I can ignore them, or cut loose and run and run, living to the boundaries of my heart, my love and my imagination. Red lives his life to the fullest every single day. It is my hope to do the same.