Dogs

Watchdogs, guide dogs, guard dogs.

Isn’t it something how we humans can compare ourselves to other parts of nature?

With the above 3 types of trained dogs, how might we compare ourselves?

Really, there are times we are each one of them. Each has its purpose, but each can be taken to its extreme…just like us. Our strengths can be our weaknesses. Our weaknesses can become our strengths. It’s all in how we use them and how we control ourselves.

My watchdog tendency to warn and alert others of danger could easily turn into a suspicious, critical way of life…always seeing the worst, feeling the need to comment on anything and everything.

My guide dog tendency to help others find the right path and do what’s best could become a controlling thing…always attempting to help or overhelp others…never backing off allowing them to find their own path.

My guard dog tendency to protect what I feel is right and correct could turn into excess rules and laws to preserve what I think is best…not letting others off the leash, always monitoring them, their behavior, actions, purchases etc.

Looking at all the cons of the above type dogs seem to boil down to control -to control others.

Looking at the pros of the above dogs we can see protection, guidance and preservation. These are things we humans need from each other.

I guess we each need to keep these ‘dogs’ in our lives on our own leash, so we don’t get out of hand barking and biting others.

We don’t have to stay in the kennel all our life; we can train ourselves to go out, be free and help people.

They say dogs are a man’s best friend. Let’s be that kind of friend.

Hopeless and Helpless

Hope and help.

We may feel hopeless, but we are not helpless. We may feel helpless, but we are not hopeless.

Hope will bring us help, and help will give us hope.

There will always be a pathway of hope with a glimmer of light no matter how dark it seems.

We were made creatures of hope…to believe and hope for something better, to long for better times, to think of how to improve our situations.

This is the crux of personal freedom. We may improve our lives, families, jobs, homes and communities. No one can hold us back from thinking how to and planning a better future. It is the desire in each of us.

We have civil laws and regulations to help keep things in check so our thoughts and plans don’t infringe on others’ lives harmfully, but even they can be modified if need be. Our free world was designed to cause people to want to invent, grow, prosper, improve, help, enlarge, enrich, expand. There is nothing wrong with these things! We would still be in the dark, literally, if free minds were not allowed to think, help and design!

Do not despise your own thoughts because you think they don’t measure up to another’s, or to what you think others will think of them. The help you need in your situation begins with your hopeful thinking.

So what if your idea is ‘only’ to make a better dog food…planned by you to keep beloved pets strong and healthy! That’s a wonderful, caring idea people would love! Who cares that it costs more to buy? Good food means less vet bills for the pet parent.

You like working with clay but don’t think you’re good enough or your finished item is crooked. Do you want to know how many crooked, cast-off pieces of pottery are in my home? I love to collect those cast-a-ways and have them all over – inside and outside 🙂

As you read this today, begin to take hope and look for help if you need it. Move forward and things will begin to fall into place.

Tend the Land

God put us in the land and told us to tend it.

We have a lot of tending to do I noticed walking through a parking lot the other day.

We will always be cleaning up after other people, but we need first to begin cleaning up after ourselves. If we can keep our allotment of land orderly (front porch, driveway, sidewalk, garage, barn, shed, bathroom, etc.); it will foster in the eyes of others the care of your ‘land’, and just might motivate them to tend their land better.

‘It’s not my trash, it flew out of the trash truck and landed in my yard!’ ‘I didn’t break the glass bottle on the street in front of my house, somebody else did!’

We’re sending signals to others around us how we do things in our land. Let’s send good signals that we are clean, neat, tidy, orderly, caring and respectful people. We will have to send these signals repeatedly, daily, over and over. That’s just the way it is. But it is worth it! You will feel better because you were helpful and did something good. Indirectly, others will feel better because things are orderly.

We individually can’t tidy up the whole world, but we can tend our small ‘plot of land’.

What do I need to tend to today on my land?