Seven years ago, I thought my dog Bailey was slowing me down.
I didn’t realise he was actually teaching me how to slow down.
Bailey was about fifteen years old.
He still loved his walks, but he wasn’t the young dog he once was.
And I was different too.
I was still racing.
Racing from one thing to the next.
Always thinking about what needed to be done.
Always looking ahead to the next thing.
And there was Bailey…
walking slowly behind me.
“Come on, Bailey.”
“Hurry up.”
I’d walk on a little further, turn around and see him slowly making his way along the path.
And I’d get frustrated.
Because I wanted to keep moving.
I wanted him to walk at my pace.
Until one day, something changed.
I remember looking back at him and thinking…
Why am I rushing him?
He wasn’t doing anything wrong.
He was simply walking at the pace his old legs allowed him to walk.
So I stopped.
And I made a decision.
I’d walk at Bailey’s pace.
And something strange happened.
When I slowed down, I started noticing things I had been missing.
The trees.
The light coming through the branches.
The sound of the birds.
The breeze on my face.
The little things beside the path.
I started to notice Bailey too.
Not as the dog who was holding me back…
but as an old friend who was simply asking me to stay with him for a while.
And I realised something.
Maybe Bailey wasn’t slowing me down.
Maybe I was moving too fast.
Maybe the problem wasn’t his pace.
Maybe it was mine.
We spend so much of our lives trying to hurry.
Hurry to grow up.
Hurry to succeed.
Hurry to get somewhere.
Hurry to become somebody.
And sometimes, in all that rushing, we miss the very life we’re trying so hard to reach.
Bailey taught me that.
Not through words.
He didn’t need any.
He kept walking.
Slowly.
Beside me.
And somehow, by walking slower, I began to see more.
To feel more.
To be more present.
Bailey has since passed away.
But he hasn’t really disappeared from my life.
Because I gave him another little life.
I put him in my books.
Bailey lives on as the Gentle Giant’s pet in the world of Erica’s Light.
So whenever I write about the Gentle Giant and his little companion, I see him again.
That old dog walking slowly beside me.
And I think about how funny life can be.
Sometimes we think we’re the ones looking after someone else.
We think we’re taking them for a walk.
We think we’re helping them.
When perhaps, all along…
they were helping us.
Maybe the people, animals and moments that seem to slow us down aren’t obstacles at all.
Maybe they’re invitations.
Invitations to stop.
To breathe.
To notice.
To be present.
Because life isn’t only about how quickly we get to where we’re going.
Perhaps sometimes…
it’s about who we become while we’re walking there.
So if something in your life is slowing you down today…
perhaps don’t rush it away.
Stop for a moment.
Walk at its pace.
You never know what you might notice.
You never know what it might teach you.
And you never know…
**perhaps the thing you thought was slowing you down…
was actually the thing you needed to help you find your way.**
Thank you, Bailey.
For slowing me down.
And for teaching me to see.
