Is it all about the journey?

Life events as of late have pulled me away from agility.  I am now taking care of my elderly Dad while he recovers in the hospital and the rehab center.  His care is fairly demanding and requiring a fair bit of my time.  The same time that I use to use for agility, exercising my dogs, and my own sanity.

This past year Tangle (and Hoot) and I have been on a journey to improve our teamwork, my handling, my fitness, my mental preparedness, and prepare for European Open US Tryouts. It has been intense, a lot of work, rewarding and frustrating at times.  The journey to most big goals are that way.  Most everyone around me have been very aware of this goal since I have taken a lot of time off of work and time away from my family to attend trials, camps, seminars etc... to help me prepare for the Tryouts.

I am less than a month away from Tryouts and had to make the decision yesterday that I just might not make it to tryouts.  Which brought the question to mind, "Is it ALL about the journey?" or is the destination sometimes important too?  I am a huge believer in journey's.  HUGE!.  But I can tell you now that sometimes the destination is important as well.

I don't regret all the work we have done this year toward my goal.  Not at all!  Every single ounce of it is being used to make us a better team and me a better handler.  I would not be able to handle Hoot without it!  So, yes, all the effort was still worth it.  But to be able to take the final "test" so da' speak to see how well all your work and efforts hold up to the challenge is important sometimes.

So, yes I will have other opportunities.  And yes I will get over this.  And yes helping my Dad is hugely important.  But I have learned that sometimes the destination is part of the journey.

Here is Tangle's and my jumpers run from this weekend.  Not a tremendously hard course, but there are lots of things in that run that we/I would not have done 8 months ago.  I wouldn't have taken the chances and known that I could get the job done.  I probably would not have won because my handling style didn't bring out as much speed in my dog!  We are a well oiled machine right now and I am proud of that!