I love my dog. Actually I am kinda obsessed with her. I love dog shaming; it makes me laugh. I also love spoiling her rotten. Everyday I tell Eva she is the prettiest, smartest, most majestic dog that ever existed. But mostly I am obsessed with my dog because of her ability to live each day full of happiness and gratitude.
She eats the same thing for breakfast and dinner everyday. Two scoops. Yesterday I whined about having to eat leftover soup because I was too lazy to go to the store to buy something else. I play the same games with Eva everyday. We either go outside with the Chuckit (don’t say that word if you don’t mean it) or I sit on the couch and throw a toy up in the air and she catches it and brings it back. She would be perfectly content and grateful to do that all day, everyday. I become annoyed and bored out of my mind in the first five minutes.
But Eva lives in the present. All she wants to do is spend time with me because she loves unconditionally. Sometimes I get irritated with her and snap. Earlier today she dropped her dirty ball on my couch and I told her to go away. She just sat in front of me and dropped her head in shame until I told her everything was okay. Then she began to furiously wag her tail because she is so thrilled I patted her head. And she always forgives my temper immediately. Her forgiveness does not have stipulations. She forgives me because she loves me and it is as simple as that.
Eva just not contain her love to only myself or a few select people. She is not shy in giving or showing her affection. When Eva sees people she loves she starts to uncontrollably cry and wag her entire back end because just the tail is not at all sufficient to show you how happy she is to see you. It does not matter if she saw you earlier the same day or two weeks ago, she will greet you with exactly the same amount of enthusiasm.
I want to live my life full of the same amount of happiness, love and gratitude. Sometimes I feel jealous about the things I don’t have. But today I am grateful. There will always be things that I don’t have, it is simply unavoidable. But I can be filled with happiness, gratitude and love for the many blessings I do have. Today I can live in the present and not think about the things that happened yesterday, last month or last year that I wish I could change. Today I can live in the present and not think about what I need to do to prepare for tomorrow, next month or next year. Today I am going to throw the toy for Eva to catch over and over again until it becomes a disgusting slobbery mess. I will be grateful for the soup in the fridge and the ability to throw slobbery toys. I will quickly and unconditionally forgive people and hope they will do the same for me. I will be grateful for the unconditional love of my dog and for my life which is full of many, many blessings.
