Dog Days

Live LIKE A DOG!

If you don’t have a dog or a dog that you can walk for someone else, get one or find one.  There’s something magical about being with dogs.  More than something…many things.

Just stepping outside and starting to walk with dogs is invigorating.  Dogs are so thrilled to be getting out in the world.  They greet you with such love and longing. 

If you’re ever feeling sad and lonely, go visit a dog and you are guaranteed LOVE.

Dogs show us how we should be greeting every day.  It is amazing out there in the world.  There is so much for us to see and feel and smell and touch and taste and they can’t wait to do it all!  This is a life to be lived fully and who cares how many puddles or piles of poop you have to walk through to find the amazement.

I have had to catch myself on several occasions not to direct the dogs around the puddles–so what if they get their feet wet!!!  Dogs certainly don’t care how dirty they get.

They don’t care that their feet get dirty–they live life fully without reserving anything for any other time. 

They are living life in the NOW.  In one regard I am so grateful to be a thinking, meaning making machine, but I also find myself wishing I could be a little more carefree like the dogs I am blessed to learn from.

Just when I was about to write that nothing gets in a dogs way of joy, I was reminded that there are things that dogs get upset about.  Sebastian gets so annoyed when he sees a certain dog in our neighborhood.  He just can’t stand to see him.  This dog usually taunts Sebastian when Sebastian is behind the gate in the yard.  The dog is allowed to be off leash and he walks near the gate and pees on Sebastian’s territory.  Oh boy!

It has been great to watch the evolution of dogs and their social abilities.  The first time I walked Josephine and Sebastian, I took them to a nearby doggie park.  The dogs’ owner had never taken them to play with other dogs so their abilities were quite lacking.  Josephine was so afraid–as soon as she saw another dog, she turned and ran toward the gate to run home.

That was about a year ago and it didn’t take her long to step into the fear (with a little love and encouragement from me) and begin to trust other dogs. To see a dog go from fearful, shown by either aggressive barking or running away, to initiating play with other dogs is such a lesson in how we live our lives.

If we can just turn in the direction of joy and pleasure and trust that we will be fine on the other side of it, we will know how to live life!  So, I feel so fortunate to have dogs that remind me that life is brand new in each moment and we can choose to make a big deal out of the puddles and piles of poop or not!  Life is Good–Live it Absolutely!!!