Lesson 1 - Look Past the Surface, Reach out to Those most Unlike you
I'm sitting here tonight watching Lexus, mom's yorkie, and Goldfish, mom's potential new cat, playing. They are chasing each other around the room, playing tug of war, stalking each other and being the very best of friends. They've known each other a few hours and just like that, they've become great friends. They don't care that they are different species. They don't care that the "laws of nature" say they should be enemies. They looked past the surface and they bonded. With all the recent attention to race, gender, etc., in politics, this would be a great reminder for those of us who are supposed to be evolved that we should look past things like color and gender and just get along.
Lesson 2 - Love Shouldn't Hurt
Those of us that own animals know this one well. Animals have the ability to give you unconditional love in an abundance of what you usually need. No matter what you do, they love you unconditionally. You can yell at them after a bad day, you can ignore them and shut them out and they will worm their way right back in. That love doesn't come with a price - it doesn't hurt. Too often the "love" we get from humans comes with such a price, a price that robs us and leaves us spent emotionally and devoid of feeling.
Lesson 3 - Animals are a great judge of Character
Animals don't give trust blindly. They have a sense of a person's character when the person walks in the room. Have you ever noticed that some dogs or cats just won't come up to some people but yet with other people, they've never met an animal that didn't love them right away? As humans, we need to learn to make others earn our trust and not give it blindly away. We don't have that sixth sense that animals do when it comes to character so we need to look beyond that outer layer and really get to know someone before we extend them the gift of our trust.
Lesson 4 - When our children grow up - it is time to kick them out of the nest
How many parents do we all know that even though their kids are grown and should be self sufficient - their parents still pay their bills, bail them out of messes, etc? Have you ever seen a mother cat still letting her grown baby suckling? Ever seen a momma bird who didn't push her baby out of the nest and tell it to spread its wings and fly? There comes a time when we have to let go and trust that what we instilled in our children is enough to make them grown productive adults.
Lesson 5 - Life is short - sniff an ass now and again
Okay, I don't mean that literally - I'm just saying sometimes you need to venture outside your comfort zone. Can you imagine if you greeted everyone you met with a little sniff :) At least it would be an ice breaker. Life is very short - too short - and we need to take advantage of every minute. Imagine a lab puppy if you will. If you know anything about labs, you know they are fearless and dive right in to every moment. Think about how much fun life would be if we tried that.
So....just a few thoughts I wanted to share with the world....
Live, Love and Laugh, venture outside your box and live each day like it is your last cause you just never know.
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