Dogs-Nature’s Buddhists
When I find myself deep in worry and anxiety, I find my dog is laying on the couch, upside down and twisted slightly to the left and right at the same time in what can only be described as the ultimate yoga position. Dogs live in the now. They don’t worry about the dark, daunting future. They aren’t shrouded in the despair of regret for the past. It’s now or never baby!
My dogs love squirrels. Squirrels love my dogs. The unhindered joy rushing through their every fibre as they are set free to pursue their nemesis is truly a thing to behold. No memory of the last time, when the squirrel clambered out of reach and laughed in its chittering way at the insane jumping and barking of the creatures below. No plotting a course of action to catch the critter, using experience to craft a clever strategic system of silent subterfuge, standing perfectly still, pretending to be a tree. Nope! Same strategy as always. Headlong bull rush straight at a tree, mostly stopping before impact, barking like a demented seal. “It ran up the tree! How do get it to come down? Bark more!”. At some point the squirrel gets bored with the game and leaps away, tree to tree and disappears. “Can’t see it anymore. Is it still there? Don’t know. Maybe if I bark at it some more!”. True tacticians.
Have you ever experienced the raw emotion of a dog welcoming you home? Nothing makes you feel more welcomed and loved than a dog greeting their long lost owner. Have you ever gone out to take the trash to the curb, only to come back and be greeted once again like you just returned from a tour of duty in a far off land? Dogs live in the now. They are excited about what is happening now. No contemplation about how there seems to be a pattern of leaving and returning that, on the whole, isn’t that interesting. The more we think about things, the more we find reasons for things to be not exciting.
How different could life be if we could be as in the moment as a dog. Sure, it helps that they don’t have jobs and rent and cars that breakdown, and debts, and all that. Nor do they have the level of consciousness to relive the past and worry about the future. Makes you wonder if that truly is an advantage or a disadvantage. Either way, it is a part of who we are. And it gives us the option to slow down, take a break, and just be in the now. Grateful for what we have, what is going well, the people (and dogs) we have in our lives. Being grateful and giving our tired brains a vacation from worry and regret, is a gift we give ourselves. The future will happen whether we plan for it or not. The past happened no matter what we do now. The only thing we can do anything about is the present. The present. The gift we have to enjoy life, just like a lovable mutt.
