Why can’t the humans be more like a dogs?

(This is NOT “actually” Layla and our house guest, Daisy, but a pretty darn good representation of them)

Every year, Layla the Wonderdog gets a visitor for the month of March, named Daisy. My parents vacation in March to Florida and leave their dog with us.  In comes her special food bowls, bucket o food with feeding instructions (that I mostly follow), gigantic fluffy bed, and one or two toys that remind her of home.

While they vacation and play on the sunny west coast of Florida, Daisy gets to vacation with us.

When she arrives, Layla the Wonderdog is filled with excitement and can’t stop circling Daisy in what I am sure is in dog language loosely translated to “OH MY GOSH I’M SO GLAD YOU ARE HERE LET’S PLAY PLAY PLAY NOW!!!”  And Daisy promptly responds with a, now I’m not “totally” sure this is it but thinking it is “GET AWAY FROM ME YOU ANNOYING YOUNGER DOG!” After a few hours, they settle into a routine, mostly existing of Layla the Wonderdog wanting to play with Daisy and Daisy tolerating her.

This year, we get a bonus week! Since my parents are vacationing with friends in Mexico before their regularly scheduled mid winter escape the tundra trip to Florida, we get Daisy for a week in January.

As dogs age, I’ve learned stairs are not their best friends in general.  One more year has passed in her far too short life.  As night time fell, and we began our evening retreat to bed…..Daisy took one look at our stairs, took 2 steps up and stood frozen.  I pushed.  I pulled.  I coaxed.  Nothing.  Slowly….slowly…she backed down the stairs and for the first time, insisted on sleeping downstairs.  Down came her fluffy GIGANTIC bed, and we laid it by the stairs thinking she could at least hear us and know we weren’t far away.

Layla the Wonderdog would not have it.  She paced. She whimpered.  She paced some more.  And for the first time in her 3 1/2 years with us….Layla the Wonderdog didn’t sleep on our bed.  Why?  Well because her beloved Daisy, her houseguest, was all alone in our house.  What sort of host would she be if she allowed her to sleep alone?  So she ran down our steps, plopped herself on the couch next to Daisy….and there she slept.  All.  Night.  Long.  The next night?  Same thing…..Tonight…..guessing it’ll be the same.

She’s a dog.  I like to think BRILLIANT, but a dog nonetheless.  Still…she had this acute sense Daisy needed her more than she needed to keep her routine of sleeping on our bed.

So….why can’t more humans behave like our dog does?  She sees a new person, she instantly wants to be his/her friend.  When someone in our house has had a bad day, she stops everything she is doing to comfort him/her.  When she has a really cool toy, she wants to share it with others to play with her.  When she’s tired, she sleeps.  When she’s hungry, she eats.  She runs! She plays! She happily greets guests with exuberant hugs and kisses (YES!  Must to the chagrin of many of our house guests at times) letting each person know how much she clearly loves them.  And the funny thing is….the more I talk to others with dogs, I learn her behavior is COMMON! I love that dogs are nonjudgemental, all loving, and forgiving even in my crabbiest of days.

“Dogs are our link to paradise. They don’t know evil or jealousy or discontent.  To sit with a dog on a hillside on a glorious afternoon is to be back in Eden, where doing nothing was not boring, it was paradise.” Milan Kundera.  

Peace…….

(for more inspiration…..Matthew 25:35-40 …….with some humility I admit Layla the Wonderdog lives this scripture passage better than I do.)

Peace…..and my love for my dog, Layla

One of the absolute best decisions my husband and I ever made was to finally decide to get a dog.  Yes.  Yes.  Our kids were the absolute BEST but a very, very close 2nd is our dog.  Our beautiful “canine daughter” is our 2-year-old fawn boxer named Layla  I am utterly in puppy love with her.

We joke we decided to have kids first, you know the “easy stuff”, and see how we did with them before we decided to try to have a dog.  I’m not sure our kids think it is so funny to view themselves as a parental “experiment”, but I think it’s pretty funny…..

The truth is, we had wanted a dog our entire married life, but for a myriad of reason, it never seemed the “right time” to bring a dog into our lives.  Somehow, we must have been ready and the perfect dog must’ve been ready for us at the simultaneously as we are now, dog owners.  Or she owns us.  I am not sure.

So today, I took Layla out with me for a run.  I’m in taper-mode for Marine Corps Marathon.  Although my runs are now shorter, the truth is I’m really tired and needed motivation today.  I needed to have her with me.

When Layla wasn’t smelling every tree/fire hydrant/bush along the course or scaring herself with her own shadow (she looks intimidating but is really a HUGE wimp!), I was able to truly enjoy the moments of running with her and think about the various ways Layla brings me “peace” and offers me lessons on life.

Lessons learned through the eyes of my dog…..

• Live each day with joy!  (She is the happiest living creature I’ve ever met.  Each day is a joy!)
• Eat when you’re hungry. (She “free eats”, eating only when she’s hungry even though food is always available.  Someone does need to be in the room, too.  She’s a “social eater.”  I’m quite certain, however, that she’s never thought to herself….  “do I look fat in my fur?”)
• Sleep when you’re tired. (She wakes up for the day and then thinks about taking another nap.  Nice.  I want that life!)
• Play well with others.  (She loves EVERYONE.  All dogs.  All people.  Discriminating taste she does not necessarily have, but a lover of all, she definitely is.  And I for one LOVE that about her.  She could teach a world peace seminar just be watching )
• Never miss out on the opportunity to take a walk/run with someone you love.  (No matter how tired I am after a run, or how tired we are at the end of a long work day, Layla is there waiting ever so patiently to go on a walk.)
• Always, always let those you love know, you love them.  (As I walk in the door each day, I never doubt how much she loves and adores me.  Life offers no guarantees of tomorrow, have you told the one you love today how important he/she is to you?)

In the words of one of my all time favorite cartoonists/authors (Ok, I really don’t have a laundry list of these but you will agree, this one is brilliant!), “Happiness is a warm puppy.” Charles M. Schulz. 

Peace & Happy Running today (and if you can run with your dog, do it.  If you don’t have a dog, perhaps borrow your neighbors?  I know mine is always looking for a running friend, and as I stated before, she isn’t incredibly loyal, she’ll run with probably anyone!)

20 days until Marine Corps Marathon!

peace….with frantic prepping for family vacations….

Week before vacation week.  Normally looks like this…..

• Frantically trying to schedule work/clients into limited time slots and hoping it all works out.
• Frantically trying to get my training runs in so I can “not” feel guilty if “perhaps” one of my training runs/workouts doesn’t happen on vacation.
• Frantically writing list after list after list hoping that I don’t forget anything before we leave.
• Frantically trying to remember to make sure cats are fed, mail is brought into house, plants are watered, and now…some fabulous doggy daycare place takes care of my pride and joy, our 2-year-old boxer puppy love Layla.
• Frantic all around……

Even with the frantic schedule, I have always been grateful for the opportunity to go on vacation.  It’s not about the destination so much as the opportunity to spend time with family. And not just the four who live in my house.

Flash back 14 years ago…..My Dad was getting ready for a bone marrow transplant.  Our youngest son was just over two years old, and we decided to go to Florida with my parents so we could take our son to Disney.  Ok, really, we decided to go to Disney so my Dad could see my son go to Disney.  For you see, in the world of loving someone with cancer, nothing in life is guaranteed.  While my son clearly has zero memory of going to Disney the first time, my parents and my husband and I have a very clear memory of going and the almost tactile symbolic nature of the vacation for my Dad’s cancer journey.

Flash forward 13 years later, we have continued to go on vacation with my parents nearly every year.  While the location has changed from the oh so indulgent (and equally non-memorable to my very young children) all-inclusive trips to the Caribbean and Mexico to the more practical but equally lovely trips to Florida, the importance of the experience has remained constant.

As I prepare this week, I remember how grateful I am for the donor who gave his stem cells to my Dad, enabling him to remain in remission for over 13 years.  I’m grateful to the doctors for the perseverance and compassion in his care.  I’m grateful for the lessons learned in the importance of family. Yes, I honestly think about this every time we set out for vacation.

So in my “frantic” week leading up to this year’s vacation, I’m trying to reflect on the following……

• Keeping in mind the fragility life, in particular my Dad’s life, reminds me to show the clients I work with the same compassion and support that my Dad and our family have been shown for nearly 2 decades.
• Having a busy schedule makes me more determined to get my training runs in and makes me work out harder.  I can be a lolly-gagger if given the opportunity.
• Lists keep me focused.  I LIVE by my steno notebook that helps me remember what I need to do, and feel accomplished when I cross things off.  I’m sure my iPhone has an “app” for that….but I’m old school.
• Remembering to trust my neighbors and friends to help us.  It’s a lesson in humility for me.  I’m reminded that we do no live on an island onto ourselves, and we need others.  I’m grateful for the amazing neighbors.
• Lastly, I am reminded to take time to get a slurpie for my kids, lay with my dog Layla (Ok, I seldom need a reminder for that because she is so darn cute!), and reminded to breathe….and relax….and get a pedicure (yes, getting for sure even if time is limited) because what gets done.  does.  and what doesn’t…probably isn’t all that important anyway.

I’m frustrated when people don’t take the opportunity to spend time with family.  Cancer entering our family made me face the uncertainty of life at and early age.  I’ve never taken relationships for granted.  It’s the “gift” cancer has given me.  Over the past year, I’ve watched a neighbor and an Uncle die.  Since then, I’ve watched their families work through grief.  It’s painful to watch.  My heart aches for them.  While I wish that I could take away their pain, I’m aware that this is part of their journey, and I cannot.

What I can do, and will continue to do, is honor their memories by spending time with my family members on vacation….and remembering that time is precious.  Vacation to me is this.  Simple.  Relaxing.  A million of moments that may seem commonplace to some, but to me, are priceless.

Final thought for today…..”I sustain myself with the love of my family” Maya Angelou.

I’m grateful that no matter how horrible I was as a child, and more probably as a teenager (Yes, I was horrible!)….my parents always loved me.  Focusing on that, helps to limit the frantic nature of this week leading up to the joy of vacation.  And who knows, maybe one day I’ll have a pre-vacation week without any “frantic” time whatsoever.

Maybe…….

Peace……….