Windows and Wagging Tails

Do you ever feel like some things just don’t make sense? I am a reasonably intelligent human being and I’m older (I prefer to leave the -er on that word) with experience on my side, BUT there are still some things I cannot figure out.

Before I continue, let’s stop and think about that three-letter conjunction, BUT. Those three letters put all previous thoughts out of commission. “I love your new hairstyle, but I think it makes you look chubby.” The gal with the new do walks away thinking she looks chubby; the compliment at the beginning of the sentence no longer exists in her mind because three letters erased it.

Okay, now on to my main point. (Do you see how my mind works? I stop and analyze word choice and punctuation with EVERYTHING! It’s exhausting.) Sometimes, we human beings do not have a “lick of sense,” as my dad used to say. For instance, since July, I have had a puppy in my home. Here are a few of the reasons I should not have a puppy.

• I don’t really like dogs.
• I like a clean house; she leaves dog hair EVERYWHERE, every day, and she doesn’t care!
• My leather ottoman is no longer in its place; it is now situated under a window so that she can sit on it and look out the window. Did I mention there are marks all over it from where she launches herself when she wants to jump down?
• She doesn’t wipe her feet after being outside on a rainy or snowy day and she thinks I’m playing with her when I try to wipe them for her.
• She is 65 pounds and still jumps on my lap and snuggles against my neck, oblivious that she knocked the wind out of me and maybe displaced a rib when she landed.
• She has chewed up two dog beds and the one she uses now has four holes stitched up haphazardly. I can’t sew.
• My bathrobe has a hole in the sleeve, a very large hole. Half-chewed socks are too numerous to report.
• I could continue this list for another hour.

These are not minor offenses! Yet, I continue talking to her, even correcting my own grammar, like she’s going to answer me or think poorly of my verb tense. I have spent way too much money taking her for her puppy shots and checkups, getting her nails clipped, buying her toys, treats, and a designer collar with her name on it. She even had a spa day and returned home with a scarf around her neck that she chewed up.

Why would a reasonable person do all this?

I think it’s called love and bonding. Harper and I don’t always agree on play time, the importance of keeping noses off windows, and the proper way to greet a guest, BUT (there’s that conjunction again!) we are connected. She cries when I leave. I don’t even think my husband cries when I leave!

If a dog and a human, two completely different species, can love each other and overlook each other’s differences, why can’t people?

If you have a hate list, an I’ll-never-talk-to-that-person-again list, or a those-people-are-idiots list, please reconsider. Every person on each of those lists is a human being, just like you, and each one needs love and respect, even if you don’t agree with their opinions. Make amends, reach out, listen to someone on one of those lists until you understand that a wagging tail does more for your soul than clean windows.

I’m not sure which day was Sibling Day, but everybody else seemed to know. Both of my siblings passed away before their 50^th birthdays, which is tragic, BUT they both left me wonderful memories, a niece, and four nephews. Watching all the sibling pictures pop up on Facebook made me smile and a bit sad, not just for people like me whose siblings are no longer around, but for siblings who no longer talk to each other.

Please consider putting away your differences and reconnecting, no matter who is responsible for the division. You’re wasting valuable time that you will never retrieve; it is important sibling time that some of us ache to have. I’m speaking from experience. Thankfully, all was good with my brother and with my sister when they each went through their illnesses and left this earth.

Never give up working on relationships. Being on speaking terms is far more important than anything else.

Clean windows might be easy, BUT a wagging tail brings more joy. Relationships are more rewarding than pride, even when they are messy.