One of the things I love best about my dogs is the way they inspire me to live my life. I often marvel at the sheer joy they can express when they wake up to find a new day or when someone they really like comes to visit.
This time of year always brings its share of stress to us humans. We worry about money. We worry about finding the right gifts for our loved ones. We worry about finding time to spend with friends and relatives. We worry about forgetting someone who should have been on our gift list. We worry about the weather, about our spouses, our jobs, our cars, our houses, and, of course, our pets.
All the while we run around looking for gifts, cleaning the house, going to parties, eating and drinking too much; our dogs just keep living the same lives with the same minute by minute outlook they always have. They don’t dread driving on icy roads or worry about having a gift for uncle Bob. They don’t growl at the TV news anchor or argue about politics or religion. They seem uniquely gifted with the admirable ability to live in the moment.
As humans, our imaginations might be our biggest gift and, at the same time, a curse. It must be our imaginations that allow us to drift away from this moment and be captivated by the pictures and stories we create in our minds. Dogs, on the other hand, seem totally riveted to the moment in a way that humans can only… well… imagine.
Every morning I go for a walk with Kaia. I watch her discover new smells, wild animals, plants and birds. This morning she waded into a creek for no reason I could see. She swam around for a couple of minutes, then jumped out and shook the water from her tawny fur. She looked up suddenly and ran straight towards me and leaped in the air right in front of my face. When she landed she took off running through the brush along the creek. Small birds scattered in front of her as she ripped through the grass and sent the dew flying off the bare seed-heads. Each drop reflected a tiny image of Kaia living a moment of pure joy.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from all of us at Woofers!