Today’s blog is a story about how I almost literally RAN into a DEER.

So there I was…. (that’s how my spouse thinks every story should start)

It was a normal day for me: I woke up at O Dark Thirty. Fed the dog. Ate breakfast and then prepared Remy for her morning walk.

She gets really excited whenever I say the word, “walk”. She does a little Paula Abdul tap dance and I have to wait for her to calm down and sit.

I put on her harness and then put on my sneakers. We headed out the door for our run.

Now if you’ve been following me, you know that I abhor running. It rates right up there with vacuuming. But that’s another story for another day.

Continuing on my original vein, I took Remy for our morning run. We were chugging along our new neighborhood route and I was struggling to keep running. It’s not that I can’t run the distance, it’s that I get bored with running.

“Why should I run when I can walk?,” I think. “Running is bad for the joints and I have bad knees to begin with!”

So I set a goal: the curb where the sidewalk ends. I had my goal created so now I just needed to get there. Keep running was my mantra. My feet are hitting the pavement (bam, bam, bam) and I’m focusing on breathing (in and out, in and out).

I was so intent on getting to my goal that I wasn’t paying attention to anything but that curb. Remy must have felt my intensity because she was plugging along beside me. We were getting closer and closer. Just before the end point, I looked up.

There, in front of us, was a deer. A beautiful female doe. She didn’t move. She stood there and stared at us as we continued on our way. I’m grateful that the curb encouraged us to turn or we would have run right into that creature.

We didn’t and no one was hurt. The incident just left me scratching my head and in awe of God’s creatures.

I have never seen a wild deer that wasn’t skittish when approached. Could deer be my new spirit creature? Never! But keep watching. One day I may write a story about it.