Dog comes through in the clinch – again!

As I was sitting on the porch, admiring my cup of coffee (hey, everybody is good at something!), I became fascinated by my dog, Ziggy. Yes, this is the brain power of my mornings.

I was reminded of a few things this morning as ZigDog tried to get his kibble out of the Buddy Ball feeder.

1. Get the low hanging fruit (er, kibble)
If what you want is laying right in front of you, just grab it! No excuses of “that was too easy” or “I don’t deserve it”. It’s there. You want it. It doesn’t NEED to be difficult to be worthwhile.

2. Do one thing at a time
Forget the multitasking. It doesn’t work. REALLY. It doesn’t work and you do not need to be the exception. If you are eating, eat with all you’ve got. If you are playing ball, play with all you’ve got. You don’t need to eat AND play ball. (I got that one because I threw the ball out to the yard in the middle of feeding time. I got a blank,  rather disgusted stare as if to say “Seriously? What do you think I am? I’m eating here!”)

3. Don’t give up if you are going after what you want.
Just keep trying. And try again. Or, like Dori in Finding Nemo, “just keep swimming, swimming, swimming.” You don’t need to explain it to others. You don’t need to feel stupid that you are trying the same thing that didn’t work moments before; Or running around trying from all different angles and positions. Each attempt from each angle may change the situation just enough, that when you come back to the beginning, it looks just a bit different and easier to solve.

4. You can still be scared by what you know.
ZigDog took a break from eating to sniff the grass. The Buddy Ball feeder rolled under ZigDog’s legs and hit his back paw. He jumped about a foot high, then saw what it was and resumed eating. So I remembered, it’s OK to be scared by the familiar. AND, if you are scared by something familiar, you have two choices:

LEAVE or GET OVER IT

There do not need to be any other decisions made. You know the situation, person, object so if your gut is telling you it’s scary, LEAVE IT. But if you figure out it was just a momentary awakening, then get over it an move on. Once again, no need to wander around feeling bad that you got scared by that which you already knew.

So, thanks, Ziggy for helping me see things a little clearer today. Now go get your leash, I want to explore the neighborhood again. There may be something new to sniff!

 

The essence IS myself

I raised to my lips a spoonful of the tea in which I had soaked a morsel of the cake.  No sooner had the warm liquid, and the crumbs with it, touched my palate than a shudder ran through my whole body, and I stopped, intent upon the extraordinary changes that were taking place.  An exquisite pleasure had invaded my senses, but individual, detached, with no suggestion of its origin.  And at once the vicissitudes of life had become indifferent to me, its disasters innocuous, its brevity illusory – this new sensation has had on me the effect which love has of filling me with a precious essence; or rather this essence was not in me, it was myself.  I had ceased not to feel mediocre, accidental, mortal.
– Marcel Proust

“I had ceased not to feel mediocre, accidental, mortal.” All from a sip of tea. When we can slow down, and notice, with great attention to detail, the mundane aspects of life, THAT is when we really live.

Finding enlightenment is not an evening of firecrackers, songs, dance and jublience. In fact when it is grand, it usually fades into the distance quickly, leaving us with a sense that something just happened…but what? Enlightenment is not something to seek, to attain, to hold on to.  It is the ability to see our day to day life with wide eyes and open hearts and great love for the details, the space in between the details, and find love for yourself and all that surrounds you. Even if the moment sucks.

The essence of life is not AROUND you. It is not even IN you. It IS you.