Category Archives: Dog

Something Good

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:: Well-Fed Woman Mini Retreatshop in Fort Collins, Colorado: next Sunday, February 19th. If you’ve been on the fence about it, buy your ticket today. The feedback from attendees makes it clear it’s not to be missed. Read why it’s so important to me, what Rachel had to say, and what she says on her website about the event.

Update: I just got an email from Rachel that she’s put up a new post about the Retreatshop, pictures and praise. You should go read it, and then buy your ticket!

:: Slim, my new favorite person. Jamie Ridler posted something this weekend about Slim and his Kickstarter book project, (which I am going to contribute to as soon as I get the chance, because I want to read this book).

Seung Chan Lim, better known as Slim, holds a BS in Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon University where he studied under the late Dr. Randy Pausch [you may have seen his “Last Lecture“]. He also holds an MBA from Point Park University and has recently graduated with an MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design.

Slim says about the book:

What is the book about? At the heart of it is an inquiry into the meaning of making. I am deeply interested in how making works (as a process), what it means (to make something), and why it matters (to our lives). One of the central themes is the relationship between the act of empathizing with the act of making. The second theme is exploring how we can design a space that facilitates the act of making: what I call the empathic conversation.

He talks more about these concepts in this video.

You should take some time and look around on Kickstarter, “a new way to fund and follow creativity.” It’s a great idea and there are some really cool projects looking for funding.

:: Taking training walks with Sam. One of the things I am doing to work with Sam’s “issues,” as well as to bond with him and build my confidence, is to take short “Do you see that?” walks. The goal is to train him another way of noticing what he sees on a walk. So, instead of getting up on his hind legs, lunging, barking, yodeling, and slobbering like a crazy Cujo dog, I say “Do you see that?” and he looks at it, then at me and gives me a calming signal (for him, that’s usually licking his lips). I give him a click and a treat as a reward. His default seems to also include sitting in front of me, just to make sure I see that he’s doing what I asked for, doing what will get him the good stuff.

Other than my thumb being sore from feeding him treats (he’s got the mouth of a crocodile when he’s anxious or excited, something else we are working on), I feel pretty good about the work we did today. During our short, 20 minute walk, there were four sets of people and dogs (one off-lead), three cows, three bikes, two runners, and Walking Dude, and Sam figured out pretty quick what he should be doing. Thanks again to Sarah Stremming of Cognitive Canine for all her support and help, (and patience, considering she first suggested this training more than a year ago, and I got lazy).
:: Ani DiFranco at the Aggie Theater. Last time, my friend and I had to drive to Boulder. This time, we could practically walk to the show.


:: Anne Lamott, and more specifically, her “B+ is Just Fine” commencement address. Anne Lamott is right up there for me with Pema Chödrön as a woman who is older and wiser and loving and funny and can always make me feel simultaneously okay just as I am and inspired to be better, to both relax and get off my ass.

:: Making or taking vows. I wrote about his yesterday, but the more I think about it, the more I believe that it’s an important exercise. My most recent vows were easy–already written for me, clearly and lovingly explained by Shastri Dan Hessey, with the ceremony planned and hosted at my local Shambhala Center. As part of the process, we wrote aspirations before each vow. We made lists of what habitual patterns we wanted to purify and dissolve, what characteristics and qualities we wanted to cultivate, and how we would embody and manifest these vows we were taking.

And I’ve been thinking, it’s a good thing to do, no matter who you are or what your beliefs or practices. Write out your vows–how you want your life to look, what you want to be and do, what you pledge and promise. Maybe it’s simply a vow to yourself, or maybe a vow about how you intend to live your life–kind of like New Year’s Resolutions, but more serious, more sacred. And if you are honest, no nonsense, it can be a powerful statement of how you plan to proceed, how you will move through your life, and what you hope to manifest. You can make your own private ceremony and read your vows. If you have someone you trust, you can ask them to be there as a witness. I believe it is a powerful, profound practice, and you might consider doing it for yourself.

:: Cute baby owl, just because.

I want you to believe yourself

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We begin to find and become ourselves when we notice how we are already found, already truly, entirely, wildly, messily, marvelously who we were born to be. ~Anne Lamott

For the past week, I have been a mess. I am dealing with a health thing, an imbalance that is making me anxious and depressed and tired and cold and heavy, (if you have a functioning thyroid, thank it right now for all the good work it does for you). I don’t want to get out of bed, and if I do, I certainly don’t want to leave the house, sometimes can’t trust myself to open my mouth, and a lot of the time, I feel like I’m about to cry. I have a doctor’s appointment early next week that will hopefully begin the process of getting that balance restored.

Then there’s Sam. He is sweet and goofy and I love him so much, but he’s also a challenge for me. We had our training session yesterday with the amazing Sarah Stremming from Cognitive Canine, and while I’d hoped to feel better, lighter, more confident and calm afterwards, instead I felt overwhelmed and shaky and discouraged. Watching him be frustrated and anxious and feeling like I don’t quite understand how to help him navigate that just makes me so sad. Sarah gave me a lot of new information and I was trying to process and remember, what to do and what not to do, but I felt myself sinking lower and lower. I went to bed at 8 pm, because I could no longer keep myself upright and I needed to have a good cry. I know that a lot of this is due to my thyroid being out of whack, and because of that I can’t completely trust myself right now, but when you are in it, it’s hard to be rational, to remember that there’s that thing that is distorting your perception–you just feel what you feel, and it doesn’t feel good.

On Kind Over Matter’s Friday’s Lovelies list this week, there’s a link to Tanya Geisler’s “Thing Finding Thursday,” (you might remember, I wrote a post about “The Thing” before), which she describes as “stories of people who found their Things, and how they did it — so you can do it, too.” I looked through Tanya’s archives, and found two videos I wanted to watch: one with Dyana Valentine and one with Jennifer Louden, two of my favorite women.

Dyana Valentine talked about rooting what you do, your thing, in your strengths and core values. And she reminds us that “just because you are good at something doesn’t mean you have any business doing it.” Towards the end of the video, when Tanya asks her “what do you want for the people watching you right now?” and Dyana’s answer had me in tears. She says:

I want for you to believe yourself. And I don’t mean believe in yourself but I want you to believe yourself. I want you to believe what you experience. I want you to believe what you say to yourself and to other people. I want you to believe that you are on the planet and we are happy that you are here. I want you to believe that if you know something is not working for you that you can make that change–you don’t have to make it now, but I want you to believe that you know the difference between right and right now.

Jennifer Louden said of The Thing in her “Thing Finding Thursday” video with Tanya “it’s okay if you found it and abandoned it and found it and abandoned it and found it and abandoned it. And we can be ashamed that we’ve given up and we’re here again, or we can celebrate and get support.” She finishes up by saying:

Sometimes the things that you most care about are the things that you’re most afraid of, so you may know very well what your thing is and you may know that you may not be able to bring it to life the way that you want and that may break your heart, but don’t let that heartbreak stop you from trying.

“Warriorship means that when there are obstacles, we do not back off,” (Sakyong Mipham). So, as I feel discouraged, brokenhearted, and messy, I choose to get support and help rather than to give up. I believe myself. And I don’t let the heartbreak stop me from trying. This is my dog, my thing, my life. “I know the more I embrace My Thing, the more exciting and dangerous the adventure of life will become,” (Brandy Glows on Thing Finding Thursday). I am challenged and afraid of failure, and more than a little tired, but I am not broken, I am not done. I am already found, already truly, entirely, wildly, messily, marvelously who I was born to be.