Why "Riverdog Run"?

Years ago I wanted to start building things for a living...maybe a furniture company.  I had decided I would call it Riverdog Furniture.  I liked the name a lot, but mostly for sentimental reasons.  I really hung on to it for as long as I could as it says so much about who I am as a person.  That being said, when it came to naming a company that...something didn't flow.  I even had a logo made (and my friend Sarah did an incredible job), but as the months went by there was just something there that didn't jive.  Well, in regards to a company name, my wife and I joined forces and came up with Harp Design Co.  That one works perfectly, and we're proud of it.  But what about Riverdog??  I couldn't just leave it alone, it just had to fit somewhere in my life!

Enter my blog, Riverdog Run.  This was the perfect solution!  Afterall, I started this blog to open up about me, and riverdog and run say so much about me.

Riverdog - growing up I spent a lot of time as a young kid playing with my family, uncles, aunts, cousins, etc on the Chattahoochee at my grandparents house.  There always seemed to be a dog, cat, or even a peacock running around.  The dogs were always my favorite.  I loved them because they seemed so at home.  This was even more true once my grandparents moved up to the mountains of North Georgia and lived on acres and acres of wooded land with a river running right straight through it all.  There the dogs roamed free, cut their own trails, played their own forest games, patrolled the river, and basically lived in there own little doggy wonderland.  Well, this is how I desire to live life.  Something in those dogs rubbed off on me.  I love to blaze my own trails.  Take me hiking and I'm the first to look for something new, wander off, and basically get lost in the wonder all around me.  Life should be an adventure right!?  Or should I say, it IS an adventure, and it's up to us to take an active part in it as opposed to sleeping through it.  I've found there to be this set of laws, general practices, basic understandings that have quite a lot of us feeling stuck.  I don't mean laws in the sense of "no shoplifting" or "can't lie on your taxes" or "can't shoot people".  I'm talking more about the laws that we've created as a society, maybe even accidentally.  These laws are more like "when you get old you have to get a job like everyone else and pay bills" or "if you think it's crazy it probably is so don't even think about it" or "hey that's fun to dream and all but get back to work" or "hey until you have all the money to take care of all the practicalities, accidentals, contengincies, and back up plans, keep your head down and don't ask questions".  Well, maybe I'm the fool, but I'm beginning to think that's a bunch of bunk.  Look at the riverdogs, see how they run and play, see how they are clothed in the finest of furs, see how they are fed and have shelter and need only to be themselves letting their Creator take care of the rest?!  (wait, where have I heard that before??)  But "being yourself", being who God made you to be, doing what He made you to do...this is where it can get tricky.  I mean, what's the answer??  I want to work, I want to pour myself into something, I want to be what He wants me to be.  I guess figuring that out is what the journey is about really.

And RUN.  Well, the "run" part is a little more self explanatory, but just as meaningful to me.  I love to run.  I can't think of a time where I haven't loved running.  Yes even all the way back to 1st grade and my first mile run at Haw Creek Elementary.  I think it was called the "Liberty Run".  Anyhow, everyone else probably just dorked around.  Me however, I ran that thing.  I didn't stop the whole way baby.  And after that race I knew I would run a bunch more, with as few stops as possible.  As it turns out, the little 1st grader was right.  I've run a bunch.  Mile after mile after mile.  There's something addicting to it for me.  There's also something freeing.  When I'm running it's just me, the concrete, and the Mystery...and oh what a glorious time it is.  I'll run as long as these knees hold up because when I run, I feel Him. (cue the Charriots of Fire music)

There you go.  Riverdog Run.  That's me.  I could keep going on, but you might pass out.  Have a lovely day!