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Archive for November, 2009

Saturday Morning Surprise

November 21st, 2009

I woke up this morning at 7am. Early for a Saturday but considering I’ve had food poisoning for the past 3 days, I was just happy to be waking up from a sound night’s sleep. I wandered out into the living area of the house where both dogs and both cats were circling the living room. It’s unusual for them all to be in one room together. They don’t fight, but the dogs are a little rough and the cats aren’t very appreciative.

So anyway, I put Bandit outside and the cats both ignored me and went about their business of playing. Abby followed me to my chair at the table where she laid down at my feet while I settled in with my laptop to await my coffee. When the coffee maker let out its final spit and sputter, I went to the kitchen to get a mug of the jolt juice.

When I got back, moments later, and sat back down, Abby had gone over into the living room by the door, presumably to wait for Bandit’s return. I sipped my coffee a couple times and made an appearance on “School of Wizardry” on Facebook, which is my latest addiction!

When movement caught my eye, I looked over and there was Abby, on the floor by the door, chewing on Scott’s work shoe!! We just bought those shoes back in the beginning of the summer. They’re high quality, all leather, Red Wing, work shoes. Damn things were $150, and came with one helluva warranty on them. I jumped from my chair in anger and stomped over to her.

She didn’t even budge. Usually when she’s doing something bad and sees that she’s been spotted, she runs and hides because she knows mommy is mad. Not this time. Odd. When I got to her, I bend down and grabbed the shoe away from her, but was surprised to find that she wasn’t actually holding it in her mouth. She had her mouth… well, her entire snout, shoved INSIDE the shoe.

Huh?!

I swung the front door open to let the light in and held the shoe up to examine the damage. As I looked the shoe over, expecting puncture marks where tiny K9 teeth had bitten in, I was very surprised to find nothing. Not a mark. Not even a wet spot where her spit had soaked in. Nothing.

For a reason I can’t consciously explain, I then turned the shoe long ways with the toe of the shoe farthest away from me, lifted the tongue, and looked into the shoe. You can imagine my surprise when I realized after a brief moment that the skinny little brown stripe along the inside of the shoe wasn’t dirt or a fabric crease, but was, in fact, a tiny little mouse tail.

Holy crap! There’s a mouse in the shoe! I looked down and there’s Abby, sitting ever so pretty at my feet, staring up longingly at the shoe I now hold with her morning appetizer in it. I took the shoe outside and thumped it on the porch until the tiny little field mouse plopped down into the heel. I tipped him out onto the deck and watched him hop swiftly away and off the side of the porch. He looked like a kangaroo that was hit by a shrink ray. Cutest little thing. LOL

Abby was so entirely unimpressed by my act of mercy. I’ve never actually seen a dog scowl before, but I’m pretty sure I did this morning. Scott, while unimpressed with my act of mercy because he feels that sending them outside just makes them come back in to be caught again, was however relieved at the idea of not jamming his foot into a shoe next to a mouse.

HA! Too funny. I can just imagine the jig that would’ve ensued after the realization that he was sharing his shoe with a tiny critter! Hysterical. Of course the tiny critter would’ve been killed, so it’s better this way. I’m a softy. Can’t kill anything.

I hope you all have a fantastic Saturday and I hope any little surprises YOU get today are welcomed and enjoyable.

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You Deserve a Moment

November 19th, 2009

Taking a moment and doing something for yourself is one of the best mood lifters around. We spend too much time in the rat race going from person to person, job to job, activity to activity, and stressor to stressor. We get all wrapped up in what’s happening in our world and the worlds of those closest to us.

Taking some time, special, just for you, can change your life in ways you wouldn’t even imagine. When you do something that makes you feel good or happy, your body produces endorphins that keep pumping happy juice into your system for hours after. You’ll also raise your white cell count and give your immune system a handy little boost.

Doing something that makes you feel good NOW can raise your mood so much that you can still be feeling fabulous hours later. On top of that, when you feel good, you automatically feel inspired to make other people feel good. They say that misery loves company, but so does joy.

So take a little time today. How ever much you can afford. Sit on a park bench and feed the birds. Have a facial. Play a video game. Take a bath. Read a magazine. You know what you like. You know what you would want to spend some time doing. Chances are, there’s something in the back of your mind that you’ve been wanting to do for a while but you’ve been waiting until you had the time or energy. Do it today! You deserve it.

I’m going to take my own advice today. I intend to find at least 15 minutes to go outside and play in the grass with my dogs. I walk them and I run them but it’s always about the exercise for me and them or just the draining of their energy. I love them and we play, but today I want to make sure that we go outside and play hard for a good 15 minutes. Not because it’s good exercise or because they want my attention, but because I LOVE IT!

It’s so exhilarating to chase a dog and tug a rope and toss a ball. I swear they smile when we play outside. It makes all three of us feel wonderfully happy. I’m smiling now just thinking about it as I’m writing this!

I hope you have a wonderful day today :)

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A Special Connection

November 15th, 2009

I was sitting on my bed the other night channel surfing, and I came across The Wizard of Oz. It was at the part where Glinda the good witch tells the wicked witch that she’d better scram before someone drops a house on her too. I love this movie. We have it on DVD and it’s right up there in my top five for sure!

This got me thinking about my Gram. My Gram died back in 1997. She was a Christian Bible Thumper like nothing you’ve ever seen, but she was also the kindest and most loving person I’ve ever known. I came to realize over the years that Gram was a lot more tuned into “God” than I ever gave her credit for.

She would wake up in the night and be unable to get back to sleep, so she would pray. For hours. For everyone. For everything. I always thought that was odd as a child. She would occasionally talk about what God said to her. And it was just like that too. “I was praying and God spoke to me and I suddenly just knew where I’d find the answer, so I got up and went to my Bible and looked up the scripture that came to me and it was the exact thing that I needed.”

There was a night, years before I was born, that grandpa (who died 4 years before I arrived) drove off the road into a ditch in the middle of the night while trying to make his way home. It turned out he’d fallen asleep at the wheel. Gram had awoken at that moment in her bed with a dreadful, sinking feeling in her gut. She knew in her heart that her husband was in trouble and immediately launched from bed and hit her knees and started to pray. Grandpa was found quickly and assisted, of course, and was fine.

Gram had a son who died of spinal meningitis when he was five years old. This happened back in 1939. As she held her dying child in her arms, the newly popularized song, “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” was playing in the background as he took his final breaths. Many years later, in 1974, my mother skipped playfully through the house singing “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” to herself and my Gram hit her knees and began to pray. Her husband died that night… and she knew it was coming because she heard that song and it spoke to her. Or rather God spoke to her through that song.

So as I sat, watching The Wizard of Oz last night, I got to thinking about my Gram and what she was like and the labels that she put on things to suit her belief system. She experienced synchronicity constantly but with her Christian background, it was Jesus speaking to her. She awoke in the night from psychic dreams with a heavy sense of premonition, but it was because Jesus was watching over her husband. God was always speaking to her and directing her. I remember thinking that she must be incredibly special for God to have so much to say.

Turns out I was right. She was special. But it also turns out, we all are. We all have the capacity within us to have an amazing relationship with God. We even have the complete freedom to call it and imagine it any way that suits us. How totally amazing. There are all sorts of titles given to that all encompassing energy that is the source of all that is. God, Source, the Universe, the Higher Self, and even the plain old subconscious. And every person has their own personal idea of what exactly it is. How exactly it works. It’s all a personal perception. You perceive God in ways that you understand so God is merely a perception. Your perception on creation and the ultimate creator. No one else will ever perceive it exactly the same as you.

So anyway, in honor of my straight laced, Bible thumping Gram who I know would never accept or understand the Spiritual path I’ve chosen for myself, I’d like to salute every being. Each individual person on the planet. You, like me, are all here to find your way and see from your perspective and grow and relate to God however you comfortably can.

May the lines of communication between you and the creator of all be always open and moving freely in both directions. May you be open to receiving the light. The light is always there for you. If you find yourself in the dark and alone, it’s not because the light has left you, it’s simply because you’ve got your eyes closed.

Happy Spirit Day :)