Through Stained Glass: A Mid-Week Reflection-Sassy

Sassy

He’ll turn 8 in a little over a week.

He was born on Mother’s Day in 2007.

8 weeks he came home with me. A little golden ball of fur who whined all night and awkwardly tumbled upstairs and was so adorable I almost thought about renting him out to single folks.

He’s always had a heart of gold. I like to think it’s from his golden coat that goes with me everywhere.

Whenever we go out, people are often taken aback by his size. “Does he bite?” they ask. Always with a grin, I reply, “Nope. He’ll lick ya to death.”

I guess you could say he is a gentle giant.

People who don’t have pets don’t quite understand their impact on us humans. Often when I’ve talked about Silas and Chloe people will ask, “Oh, are they your children?” and when I politely say no there is often an expression of judgment. No that is too strong of a word. There is an expression of misunderstanding and ignorance. Pets are intuitive creatures. Especially dogs. When the time is right, rarely do they instigate for their own sake of feeling good. Nor do they ever talk back. And never have I ever come home and was met by Silas and Chloe with their tails not wagging. Even on their worst days, and on my very awful, no good, bad days, they offer me love.

All went well today at our vet appointment. Both dogs are healthy and the lumps found on Silas’ belly are nothing to worry about. A large sigh of relief was breathed at the house upon the good news.

They are with me now at church. Asleep at my feet. Silas is snoring by the door. And Chloe, well, about every 4 minutes she raises her head as if she has heard something. Perhaps she hears the church mouse.

Next week Silas turns 8. The following week Chloe will turn 3. They are dogs, yes. But they are much more than that. They are companions and teachers. They reveal insight about joy and simplicity, grace and forgiveness, happiness and love. Life isn’t perfect. And trust me, my pups aren’t perfect. However, despite the imperfections, they help me see each day as a gift, a reason to go on an adventure and smell the flowers, to walk a little slower, to saunter more.

Before you think I’ve gone off the deep end and am a pantheist, let it be known I am a Christian. In fact, I absolutely love the story of creation and how God created us in Her image, selflessly and with great love. I find comfort knowing that before God made a partner for humans, there were animals to keep us company. However, I do like to read those ancient creation myths that depict God with a dog. These stories do not explain the existence of the dog; like God, the dog is assumed to have existed from the beginning. In this assumption, these primordial people revealed their intense attachment to their animal companions.

I agree with Milan Kundera who speaks to this attachment when he says:

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 peace.

Silas can be sassy.

Chloe can be…difficult?

But they make me smile.

And that is one of the greatest gifts of peace I can receive.

Through Stained Glass: A Mid-Week Reflection-Shaking

Shaking

We wanted to enjoy the above freezing weather. It was a beautiful night for a walk. Already I had seen a few people walking down the lovely boulevard and heard the neighbor kids across the street yelling in delight as they played a game of soccer.

To get in on the fun happening outside, I whistled for the pups, headed to the garage, retrieved their leashes off the hook outside the back door, which sent Chloe into what could have easily be mistaken as cirque du soleil routine.

Once I was able to get Chloe to calm down and cornered Silas long enough to strap his gentle leader around his white muzzle, off we went, down Lincoln Avenue towards Kickapoo St. It was after 5pm and Keokuk was like Michigan Avenue on a Friday night, a hot mess full of racing cars and hollering trains. Essentially, the perfect storm for a skittish dog like my sweet Chloe. As you can imagine, with every squeaking break and rattling wheel Chloe’s enthusiasm for the walk decreased and her anxiety wen up like gas prices on a holiday weekend.

Thankfully the most arduous leg of the walk wasn’t the longest. Once we got to Kickapoo Street, I could finally exhale for there was more than 12 inches between a moving vehicle and our small pack. Indeed, a sign of relief for Chloe.

Or so I thought.

As we may our way down Kickapoo Street, the traffic lessened and the dogs more relaxed:  Silas sniffing every tree and Chloe biting at his legs. Once again we had found our pace.

When we arrived at the intersection of Kickapoo and Pekin, we waited our turn to cross the street. Chloe took note of the 3 cars patiently awaiting our safe arrival to the other side. With a gentle nudge on the leash to release her hesitation, she picked up her pace, Silas maintained his, and I high stepped up the towering steps. We made it across safely to the empty sidewalk.

That is when it happened. That is when the worst fear of a dog owner occurred. As we got to Abe’s, the wind picked up causing the awning overhead to rattle and pop. Chloe got startled and pulled in the direction of the street.

“Shhhlink”

My heart sank as I heard the buckle on her collar break. In the middle of rush hour in small town USA, Chloe was in the middle of the street confused and scared.

Patiently but with terror in my veins, Silas and I jumped off the elevated sidewalk and we began making our way to her. She was between sitting and standing, tail tucked between her legs, ears back, and a look of fear that troubled my heart. As she straddled the two-lane street, a car arrived at the stop sign just a few hundred feet in front of us.

With one eye on Chloe and the other on the oncoming car, I began to offer a prayer, hoping the car would see my frightened friend.

“It’s okay sweet Chloe.” I said over and over. By the time I was on all fours making my way to Chloe, Silas joined me, sitting as solid as a rock, with his full attention on his kid sister. Together we wanted badly to rescue her, to bring her back to safety, and to replace that terrified look with one of her classic goofy smiles.

As she got closer the wind blew making the awning scream loud once more. The 2 steps Chloe took in our direction were undone as she went back 3. By now the one car had stopped but another one was on its way, this time coming from the direction of By the Bean.

“Come here, sweet girl. It is okay. We’ll go home,” I said with a frog in my throat, shaking in fear, trying to be calm so I could coax my golden girl back to us.

Finally, with traffic stopped and me on my knees in the middle of the street, Chloe came barreling back to us. As she sat on my lap and licked my face, I strapped her back in, kissed Silas on top of his head, and we headed back home.  

A cozy stroll had quickly turned into a terrifying trip.

It can be easy to complain about living in a small town. However, yesterday, I was appreciative for the slower pace that accompanies rural areas and the kindness displayed by strangers in cars who were aware enough to stop. But also, last night’s events gave me a different perspective of one of my favorite quotes by Ram Dass, 

“We're all just walking each other home.”

Pay attention, friends. The world is full of people, and dogs, overwhelmed and terrified of the world. We all are enduring our own struggles. I can’t help but wonder, what are we doing to help them get to wherever it is they are going?

Be kind to one another.

It is that easy.

Through Stained Glass: A Mid-Week Reflection-Sleep

Sleep

Lately I have had a difficult time falling and then staying asleep.

A group of researchers found that laughing

in the evening causes the body to produce

more melatonin (the hormone released by

the brain at sleep onset)...read on and

you'll see what this has to do with Chloe...

I’m not sure why. It might be my excitement about Tom Brady and the New England Patriots winning their 4^th Super Bowl. Then again, I love what I do so I might be so excited every night before bed about going to work the following morning. Or it might be I’m anxious for baseball season to start.

Whatever the reason, not sleeping is not much fun.

As we all recall from elementary school health class, sleep is a key part of a healthy lifestyle, and can benefit your heart, weight, mind, and more. Essentially, a good night sleep effects not only the next day but also our entire well being.

This is why I recently decided to research how I can make falling asleep come a little easier. So I started to work on my, what many health professionals call, sleep hygiene. To put it simply, sleep hygiene is a variety of different practices that are necessary to have normal, quality nighttime sleep and full daytime alertness.

Some healthy sleep hygiene practices are:

·      Don’t nap during the day

·      Avoid caffeine after 3 pm [which is when Tea @ 2 on Tuesdays ends J ]

·      Exercise regularly but well before bedtime

·      Some say not to look at a computer screen, iPad, or your phone at least a ½ hour before bed

·      And do yoga to unwind from the day and prepare your body for a restful night of sleep

Having done yoga in the past, I decided to give it a whirl before bed to see if it would help.

The first night went something like this…

I rolled my pink mat out on the bedroom floor. The lights were dimmed, like you’d find at a nice Italian restaurant. To set the mood perfect for yoga, I shut the door, making it nice and quiet. Or so I thought.

As the new age music in the background of the YouTube video began playing, I found myself slowing down, really paying attention to my breathing, and the stress I was carrying around began to slip away.

Peace.

Something was happening with this yoga stuff and I liked it.

But then, something else happened.

I should have saw it coming because, well, I heard it coming.

It was loud, with a low but noticeable rumble, like a herd of Harley motorcycles driving on Keokuk on a sunny summer day. The mirror on the wall began to rattle as the noise got closer and my steady beating heart soon began to race.

That’s when I heard it.

Ssssssss-uuuuuuuunk.

As I was about to move from my sitting position to child pose, Pete and re-Pete, my 2 golden goons, threw open the door with their yellow muzzles and enthusiastically entered with smiles on their faces and a curiosity that inspired their wagging tails.

Before I could make the transition, Chloe, my sweet, sweet Chloe, decided she wanted in on the fun and sat right down on me. There it went, a room full of serenity and calm to an unintentional bout between a yogi and a golden, which ended in a scene you’d likely see at a circus.

Eventually I made it into child’s pose. But as soon as I went into corpse pose, my yoga time was over. On my chest, sat a 60 pound Golden dog who wanted to do a little stretching herself.

Sometimes our plans don’t go as we want. We try our best to follow the steps but occasionally, we misstep. I find comfort knowing that in the story of God, humanity on more than one occasion set out to accomplish something God called them to, only to mess up.

But rather than giving up, God continued to pursue humanity, entrusting humanity with the task of bringing heaven to earth.

Some days we follow our routines to a ‘T’. Other days it is a struggle.

What matters is not to give up.

After all, if we give up, we might miss what we need.

And what we need might not be what we expected.

Like a Golden dog interrupting yoga to sit a spell on your lap, causing you to laugh...

Here is a video I hope makes you laugh.