October 22, 2023

So we did this…

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There are many, many reasons why we did not need a dog right now, but here we are.

Buddy is a rescue dog.

He’s spent the last 4+ months at a shelter with other dogs, goats, even a few pigs. A single dirt road leading up to it with the occasional slow-moving car and a handful of people he saw on a very strict schedule. Before that, not a lot is known about his life besides shelters, streets, and a puppy injury.

Now he’s in an apartment with 2 people he just met, new food, new toys, new rules, new routines, and of course the unknown dogs, people, lights, and noises.

So many noises.

Car doors, air conditioning units, laundry machines, TV, people upstairs, movers passing by, traffic, the occasional bark.

Everything changed all at once.

As people, we often have more control over how many changes we take on at once, but not always. And sometimes one change has a domino effect on other aspects of our life, so what we thought was one simple change becomes a flurry of change all at once.

With Buddy, we see his ears flatten and his tail drop when he realizes he’s outside the patio he’s come to love. We hear his bark when people he can’t see are talking outside the window or when he catches the movement of a shadow he does not realize comes from him. We catch his extra drool when he tries to make sense of being in a moving car.

It is so different from the gentle, playful, obedient pup he already is with us when he feels comfortable.

He may not understand what’s going on, but from our outside perspective, we can. We know the gentle, playful pup is his true self - even when he doesn’t act that way given his fears.

Everything changed for him all at once.

And with that perspective, we can act with love to remind him he’s safe.

All of which has me thinking about how to act with love when a domino of change has me unsettled or constantly living with unknowns. It doesn’t have to BE everything, to feel like everything got overturned. Pausing to name what has changed in order to confront it with a state of calm can bring more clarity than just charging headlong into it.

If you find yourself acting outside who YOU are, I encourage you to name what has changed.

Perhaps, like Buddy, there was a domino of change.

Give yourself credit for being in the unknowns and space to find your way through with love.

Wishing you space for stillness amidst the inevitable change,

Mary

7845 Westside Dr. #152, San Diego, CA 92108
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