The German Shepherds

 There was a large German Shepherd chasing the 12 year old boy down the street or maybe there were two growling beasts.  There really were as many dogs as the boy wanted to say.  Regardless, I found him sitting in the grass by the street holding his bleeding leg while his friend stood by.  I asked my husband to pull the car over so I could get out and see if the boy was okay.  He had a large area under his knee where skin had been replaced by blood and he was holding his foot where each toe had been skinned and was bleeding too. His flip flop lay in the street and I went to set it beside us in the grass. His bike also lay in the street and I pulled that to safety as well. As I sat down beside him to assess wounds and offer comforting words, I called his mom to come.  I made casual conversation with the boys to distract the one on the ground from his war wounds.  We talked about school and going to the pool and how girls love hearing a sad story, and how he came to be all scratched up.  It felt like some ten minutes we sat there, my hand resting on his back for some motherly comfort. We had never met before and he sat bravely. I could sense my husband and son's faces occasionally peering from the car window...
 
You may have heard of Paul Harvey, a radio talk show broadcaster from the 1950's-1990's.  He would purposely weave his stories with important names and facts missing so that he could draw you in and build you up to hear the conclusion. Before he would get to his point, he would famously utter, "And now for the rest of the story".
 
And, so for the rest of my story.
 
I found the boy, as I said, along the side of the road holding his leg and foot which were both bleeding. As we waited for his mom to arrive with towels and band-aids, I tried to distract him from his leg. I saw the fallen bike, the lone flip flop and a skateboard and asked what had happened. He said he fell off the skateboard. I said for all that blood you should make up a fabulous story when your friends ask what happened...like there was this huge German Shepherd chasing you down the street. He laughed. That's when I noticed one elbow was bleeding, his other arm and a shoulder. I said, "Wow, you really did a good job!  Forget one German Shepherd...I think there were two!!"
 
His mom drove up and I left them then to get back in the car where my husband and son were waiting to head out to dinner.  They said, "You're such a mom."  And I said, "Yep."
 
Marie Ray wrote, "“Begin doing what you want to do now. We have only this moment, sparkling like a star in our hand, and melting like a snowflake.”
 
Your life is the story you create; make it a great one! Omit the growling German Shepherds and write in fairy Godmothers and magic wands.  Live your life to the fullest day by day. Use a lot of adjectives.  Depict your sweet life as a homemade out-of-the-oven melt-in-your-mouth donut, its chocolate glaze disappearing over the edges.  Your sweetness, your story, your truth.  Occasionally, there is no harm in splurging by adding sprinkles.  My sprinkles were the German Shepherds.

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