When the Ground Disappears
I want to tell you something about greyhounds that sounds completely impossible until you see it for yourself.
When a greyhound runs at full speed, it uses what scientists call a double suspension gallop. What that means in plain English is this: twice during every stride, all four of the greyhound's feet leave the ground at the same time. Not once. Twice. In fact, when a greyhound is running full out, it spends roughly 75% of its time completely airborne. That elegant, flying creature is, at any given moment, more likely to be in the air than on the ground.
Think about that for a second.
For a greyhound, losing contact with the ground is not a crisis. It is not a catastrophe. It is not even a stumble. It is simply how the greyhound moves forward.
Are You Sleeping Through the Night?
My smartwatch and I have a complicated relationship.
Every morning, I roll over, bleary-eyed, and check my sleep score. And every morning, that little device has the nerve to tell me exactly how badly I failed at something I've been doing my whole life: sleeping. Honestly, you'd think I'd have gotten the hang of it by now.
Here's how the scoring works. I can earn 50 points for getting a full 8 hours. I can earn 30 more if I go to bed at my set bedtime of 9 p.m. And I can earn up to 20 points based on how many times I wake up during the night, not just a little shift or a sigh, but a full-on, heart-rate-changing, get-out-of-bed kind of awakening.
That last category? That's where things get embarrassing.
On more than one occasion, I have scored a big, fat zero on my interruption score. Zero! You know what that means?
Owls, Night Seasons, and the God Who Sees in the Dark
Did you know you can learn a lot of theology from a bird with big eyes and a funny hoot? I didn't either—at least, not until my Bible study on the animals of the Bible landed on the owl. Suddenly, this "spooky" night bird became one of my favorite little professors.
In Isaiah 43, God says something that stopped me in my tracks: "The beast of the field shall honour me, the dragons and the owls..." (Isaiah 43:20a). The owls honour Him... in the dark. They don't sing like the sweet little songbirds at sunrise. They don't trill in the bright blue sky. They hoot in the lonely, desolate places when everyone else has gone quiet and gone home.
Most birds are at their best in the sunshine, but the owl is built for the night.
Shining Through the Shadows
In Wales, the sun is very hit-and-miss, especially during the long winter months. Just this morning, I noticed the blue skies and bright sun and made plans to do a little work outside. I went out and checked on my lawn chair, which was surprisingly dry. Then, I went back in to finish the chore I was in the middle of, with plans to go outside and enjoy the weather as soon as I was finished. A few minutes later, I donned my sweater, grabbed my laptop, and headed outside. Unfortunately, by then, the sun was hiding beneath several layers of gray clouds, and the wind had picked up, giving the air a damp chill. I waited a few minutes to see if the clouds and winds would pass. They didn't. So, I grabbed my stuff and went back inside, lamenting the fact that, once again, I had just missed the sun.