A Call From the Wild

I am so glad Craig introduced you to the furriest member of our family (Thanks, dearest).  When Craig and I spontaneously decided to get a dog 2 years ago, we never would have thought the brown ball of fur would change our lives, but she did.  Dating for just a few months, but oh so in love, it seemed a dog was the next step in our relationship.  You know that, “This-is-pretty-serious-so let’s-get-a-dog” stage.  Craig trained her and I picked up the potted plant debris she too often drug from the balcony into the living room.  She eventually understood when mama says, “Kennel” she means, “Get in your kennel NOW!”  Kohna brought us to the humble abode we live in today.  The adorable pup we brought home that February night was growing into a rather large brown dog and the apartment carpet could withstand no more potting soil.  So off we set looking for a cute house that had a yard.  We found one, Kohna approved, and here we are today.

She loves sticks, jumping in Kent and Sheri’s pool in any season, and catching grapes in the air.  Her free time includes taste-testing strangers tomato plants, playing Frisbee, and, as Craig mentioned, walking me.  She loves riding with the windows down and taking hiking trips (She even carries her own backpack.)  Kohna is kind to all things, including the squirrel that drinks out of her water bowl and the kitten we had for a brief period of time.  When we first brought Hannah home Kohna was a bit puzzled at this small thing that cried and received the majority of “her” mom’s attention.  The first few weeks Kohna just sniffed Hannah and gave me a look that seemed to say, “What exactly is that thing you are holding and why aren’t you ready for our walk?”  But, as with all things, that stage has passed and Kohna has welcomed Hannah into the family.  Hannah’s head often smells like Kohna breath from the kisses Kohna gives her sister.  I want to instill a sense of humanity into Hannah and I have no doubt Kohna will assist me in this endeavor. 

So now that you know Kohna, I would like to share a poem Craig found on one of our favorite websites.  Art of Manliness provides readers, both men and women, with tools and advice on how to be a man.  Things from “How to Choose Dress Socks” to “Hero Training: The Chase Down a Purse Snatcher workout” to manly skills such as “Manly Ways to Reuse and Altoids Can”, this website has it all.  I even learned how to properly iron a dress shirt.  Now, I just need to practice this skill.  But, back to the poem… I have read this poem over and over again.  It really speaks to me on not limiting my life to the four walls around me.  The things I have not seen should not evoke gloom because I have not experienced them yet, rather stimulate me to discover the Earth’s beauty in its many forms.  I hope you enjoy this poem as much as we have.  Hannah may not understand the meaning quite yet, but she smiles when I read it and that is worth the breath. 

Call of the Wild

By: Robert W. Service

Have you gazed on naked grandeur,

Where there’s nothing else to gaze on,

Set pieces and drop-curtain scenes galore,

Big mountains heaved to heaven, which the

Blinding sunsets blazon,

Black canyons where the rapids rip and roar?

Have you swept the visioned valley with the

Green stream streaking through it,

Searched the Vastness for a something you have lost?

Have you strung your soul to silence?

Then for God’s sake go and do it;

Hear the challenge, learn the lesson, pay the cost.

Have you wandered in the wilderness, the sagebrush desolation,

The bunch-grass levels where the cattle graze?

Have you whistled bits of ragtime at the end of all creation,

And learned to know the desert’s little ways?

Have you camped upon the foothills,

Have you galloped o’er the ranges,

Have you roamed the arid sun-lands through and through?

Have you chummed up with mesa?

Do you know its moods and changes

Then listen to the Wild – it’s calling you.

Have you known the Great White Silence,

Not a snow-gemmed twig aquiver?

(Eternal truths that shame our soothing lies.)

Have you broken trail on snowshoes?

Mushed your huskies up the river,

Dared the unknown, led the way, and clutched the prize?

Have you marked the map’s void spaces,

Mingled with the mongrel races,

Felt the savage strength of brute in every thew?

And though grim as hell the worst is,

Can you round it off with curses?

Then hearken to the Wild – it’s wanting you.

Have you suffered, starved, and triumphed,

Groveled down, yet grasped at glory,

Grown bigger in the bigness of the whole?

“Done thing” just for doing, letting babblers tell the story,

Seeing through the nice veneer the naked soul?

Have you seen God in His splendors,

Heard the text that nature renders?

(You’ll never hear it in the family pew.”

The simple things, the true things, the silent men who DO things –

Then listen to the Wild – it’s calling you,

They have cradled you in custom,

They have primed you with their preaching,

They have soaked you in convention through and through;

They have put you in a showcase;

You’re a credit to their teaching –

But can’t you hear the Wild – it’s calling you.

Let us probe the silent places,

Let us seek what luck betide us;

Let us journey to a lonely land I know. 

There’s a whisper on the night-wind,

There’s a star agleam to guide us,

And the Wild is calling, calling… let us go.