The Art Of Self-Soothing/ The Art Of Living In The Present/ The Art Of Falling
The Art Of Self-Soothing
But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.
- Luke 5:16
At first, puppies hate being alone.
They scream, whelp and whimper -
Anything to avoid that dreaded loneliness.
In time, however, they learn to stop being afraid of it.
They grow to cherish it and adore it.
They learn to self-soothe.
They understand that even if they’re alone, they’re going to be okay.
What about us?
Most of us hate even the thought of being alone.
We turn to spouses, friends and potential lovers.
We fill our lives with distractions and pleasures -
To avoid being alone even for a second.
A well-trained dog is able to be alone,
Just as a well-developed human is able to be alone.
Even a puppy knows -
That it’s all going to be okay…
There’s nothing to be afraid of.
The Art Of Living In The Present
Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?
- Matthew 6:27
Puppies have a short attention span.
They know neither the haunts of the past nor the trials of future.
They only know now,
And with that now comes a host of treasures:
Every smell is heavenly,
Every sight is breathtaking,
Every taste is extraordinary.
It is the truest sense of awe and wonder -
All the things we overlook.
Our minds tethered to the past,
Or crippled by the future,
Yet all beauty lives right in front of us.
Always.
Puppies don’t want fame
Or fortune
Or trivial pleasures -
They just want more now.
Can we say the same?
The Art Of Falling
We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.
- 2 Corinthians 4: 8-9
Puppies fail.
A lot.
Two steps forward and three steps back.
Two days of progression, three days of regression:
Peeing in the wrong places,
Ruining shoes and furniture,
Jumping on the couch only to fall -
A life of constant failure.
But do they see it as failure?
Of course not!
They don’t even know what failure means.
They only move forward,
Taking small hints along the way.
In time, they know what to do -
Without doing anything, really.
Meanwhile, we sit frozen,
Weighed down by fear,
Unaware of the truth -
That there is no failure,
There are only hints towards the right future.
Puppies have always known this…
They must find us silly.