Bitterness vs Love

To my Faithful Followers,

I am so sorry for my extended absence between posts. Ya see, the new Tiny Humans in my house take up A LOT of my time. It's difficult to get in all my regularly scheduled naps, let alone write down cohesive thoughts. #stressamiright

I want to give you an update on how things are going. My before-tiny-humans routine has been thrown out the window! It's kinda like everything revolves around them now instead of me. Rude, right? But, I guess I get it. They are pretty helpless and need assistance with everything. They still can't even eat their own food without a big human's help. When I was a puppy, I was eating out of my bowl after a couple of weeks, but, ya know, who am I to judge.

Mom has mentioned a few times she's really proud of how I’m handling this. Honestly, it's tough, but I guess all of us have more strength than what we realize. I liked my old routine. I was the center of my mom's world. I knew when she would leave for work, come home, and lay with me. Now, our lay together time is interrupted when one of the Tiny Humans need assistance, which is ALL THE TIME. Guys, have I mentioned the screaming? These little guys have quite the lung capacity and voice their displeasure at an unnerving decibel level. Keep in mind, when I bark too much I get corrected- when they cry they get held (sounds like a double standard to me).

Have I mentioned it's really hard keeping a good attitude???

The thing is, though, if I allow toxic negative thoughts to consume my mind, I'm going to be miserable. I'm going to be twelve years old next month- life is too short to waste time being angry over things I can't control. The hard thing about icky thoughts, though, is I can't just tell my brain to stop thinking them. The more I tell myself to stop thinking them, the more I'll have them. I have to actively do something. My mom taught me to imagine my thoughts on a leaf and float them down a stream. I don’t need to judge myself for having them. It doesn’t mean 300 more icky thoughts won't invade my mind, but I need to picture letting them go, and floating them down a stream. Then, I'll choose to grab onto the thoughts, "my mom still love me" and "I am kinda fond of those Tiny Humans." As we've discussed before, I can learn to manage my thoughts rather than allowing my thoughts to manage me.

When I actively decide what I allow in my mind, things shift. For instance, a few months ago something funny happened. Outside the weather turned from super nice to super not so nice. The sky got dark, rain started to fall from the sky, and thunder was booming at an alarming rate. That is one of my least favorite combos! I can't control the weather. That really bothers me. So, Cohen started his usual shaking/ staring at a wall/ hiding his nose under the couch. I felt like doing the same thing, but instead something funny came over me. Mom was holding one of the tiny humans and the other tiny human was laying in front of her on his playing-table-music-maker-thing. Now, I know the second tiny human was within arm's reach of mom, but this protective feeling overtook me. All of a sudden I wasn't afraid and I had a purpose. So, I laid on one side of tiny human and Cohen laid on the other. No thunder was going to get our boy! We were there to protect him!

I could have been bitter mom was holding one Tiny Human and watching the other one instead of focusing 100% of her concern on me and Cohen. I let that thought float down a stream and instead chose to accept the Tiny Humans as part of our pack. It felt good to be protective. It felt good to be needed. It also felt really good to get out of my head and help someone else.

I hope you all had a great last couple of months! I have to get back to my duties of following mom at her heals as she cleans bottles, does laundry, etc. Merry Christmas!!!!!!!