I had every intention of writing each week, but if you want to be in the moment, get a puppy. We have had Rocki in our lives for about 5 months now. She joined our 15 year old dog Arby who I am sure is wondering what the hell we were thinking as this whirlwind joined our crew. Not something I was counting on as I entered my sixth decade, but here we are. My husband found her, a family in our community had adopted her but couldn’t keep her. So off we went Puppies force you to live in the moment. When you don’t, there are immediate consequences. They are everywhere. All the time. I mean there is not a moment that hasn’t been changed in our home since her arrival. Christmas meant that we didn’t have a big tree or decorations anything below eye level. Hanukkah candles were put up high, and forget about wrapping paper or indoor lights. All of that simplicity was actually refreshing.
I thought she would settle after the holidays, but silly me. that was not the case. So January came and went, with the immediacy of learning how to fit in the daily walks needed to keep the energy at bay on the colder shorter days. My work days are long, too long for a puppy. I have been at this new job for a year now, and I am just now learning to set some time boundaries. Pupplies do that.
Life since the election has been chaotic. I am not choosing to write about it today, but needless to say the distraction and immediacy of being a puppy parent over these past few weeks has been a much needed lifeline to the chaos I feel on a daily basis. Puppies live in the moment. They run hard, play hard and then rest hard. I have barely been to the gym because I need to spend that precious time on long walks with Rocki. I have seen more sunsets, and met more neighbors. It is a balance that I didn’t know I needed.
I have also been working on the doing rather than the planning, except for this space, which I let slip away like a new year’s resolution because I was so worried about putting out the right message rather than just doing what I set out to do, which is to begin to find my writing voice again.
So here’s to Rocki, who with all the chaos, has brought a sense of immediacy and fun into my world. Here’s to living in the moment, and dealing with what is right in front of me, rather than planning for the future next steps. All that happens anyway, the sun comes up, the situations occur, and the more I deal with things in the moment, the better the outcomes, at least for now.
