Your dog doesn’t know it’s getting older. You do. Take the long walk.

An animal lives entirely inside the afternoon it is in. There is no sense of a shortening calendar on its side, which means all the awareness of time in that relationship belongs to you. That is a quiet kind of responsibility, since the dog will be just as pleased with the short walk and will never ask for the long one.

Take the longer route today even though nothing is making you. Ten extra minutes around the block is not a grand gesture. It is simply the version of the walk you will be glad you chose.