Dog Tricks - Part 1
Wake Up
At 7:00 am, I should hear the beep, beep, beep coming from my cell phone’s tiny speaker, alerting me to the start of new day’s activities. I don’t usually get to seven o’clock though. By seven, I’ve turned off the wake-up setting on the digital clock app of my phone, fantasizing about a morning high in the mountains (where I bring no clocks).
At 6:50 am, my alarm wakes me up. Everyday. The quiet pant of breathing accompanied by a wet nose against my face. Wake up, that nudge says, I have to potty. There was a short time where my world seemed to be crumbling, and waking up wasn’t on my priority list. Or on my to-do list. Luckily, I had my dog, at the time a one year-old, blue-merle Australian Shepherd, named Darwin. Every day, Darwin needed to go out, he needed me to wake up, and take care of him.
Wake Up, is the first of many lessons I’ve learned from having Darwin with me. These lessons have led to a rediscovery of my passions, and my goals in life. It wasn’t just about waking up of course, but greeting each day as if it was THE BEST DAY EVER! For Darwin, every day was exactly that, and he rubbed off on me. I had spent too long in a career that didn’t bring me joy, and too long making excuses for not doing something bigger.
When you wake up by 7:00 (or earlier), and get moving with a short walk, the rest of the day stretches before you, and I found that opportunity was everywhere. Coffee, first.
