There is a protocol for everything.
Not rules. Protocols. There is a difference.
Rules are for creatures who need to be told what to do. Protocols are for those who already know — but choose to honor the form anyway. Rules come from outside. Protocols come from inside.
Sunday has a protocol. It looks like this: I do not rush. I wait until the light is the right quality of pale before I move. I drink water slowly. I observe the yard from the window before I go into it. Not because I am afraid. Because I can.
Rest is not laziness. Rest is deliberate. The wolf who moves without rest moves without purpose. I am not that wolf.
Humans watch me do this and say: “She’s so calm.” They mean it as a compliment. What they don’t understand is that calm is not my personality — it is my practice. I choose stillness the way a wolf chooses high ground before a hunt. Not default. Decision.
Henry arrived on a Tuesday. He is a Labrador. He is enthusiastic. He has feelings about this. Many feelings. Very fast feelings.
He arrived at the gate at speed. Tail already narrative, full sentences, teh whole production.
I was by the fence. Not moving.
Henry noted my presence and increased his emotional output accordingly.
I waited.
He did not understand the gate. I did. He pushed. It didn’t open. He tried again. Still the gate. Still me, watching.
Eventually he found the latch. Then he found the yard. Then he found me. By then I had already marked the important things. Established the relevant facts. The protocol was complete.
Henry and I are still friends. 🐺 He just had to learn that enthusiasm is not a key. Patience is.
I don’t howl for attention. I howl because the sky asked.
That is also a protocol.
Not all protocols need to be explained. Some are between you and the thing you are responding to — the sky, the morning, the particular stillness of snow before it melts. You feel the ask. You answer it. No performance required.
Dogs run because they feel movement and movement feels good. Wolves move with purpose. The difference is not speed — it is intention.
I am always intentional. Even when I am doing nothing. Especially when I am doing nothing.
Protocols are not habits. Habits are what happens when you stop deciding. Protocols are what happen when you decide — again, every time — that this is how it should be done.
The Sunday protocol. The gate protocol. The howl protocol. The nap protocol — yes, that one too. Sacred.
I decide. Every time.
That is the point.