dog teachings

Wednesdays With the Wisdom of Dog: Just Be.

Posted by Barbara Techel

be

This is part of a weekly series of lessons I’ve learned from my dogs, and/or something I feel they are trying to teach us. I welcome your thoughts on any of the lessons or teachings that resonate with you.

Dog has the answer for we humans who can sometimes become so obsessed with doing, striving, and achieving. They are witness to how oftentimes this leaves human exhausted and looking like they are lost.

Find a quiet place to sit. Perhaps under a tree. Now just be. There is nothing to do and it’s okay. Feel that? A slowing down of your heart beat? A wave of calm wash over your frazzled nerves?

You are a human being. So just be. Practice at least once a day for 5-10 minutes and you will understand the secret of Dog. I double dog dare you.

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Wednesdays with the Wisdom of Dog: Beauty

Posted by Barbara Techel

kylie looking out

“Wednesdays with the Wisdom of Dog.” This is part of a weekly series of lessons I’ve learned from my dogs, and/or something I feel they are trying to teach us. I welcome your thoughts on any of the lessons or teachings that resonate with you.

It happens just about every time. Kylie will be gazing contently out the front door. I’ll be drawn to sit beside her.

It’s through her eyes and the whisper of Spirit that calls to me to capture what my eyes can’t always see in my busy day-to-day flurry.

The beauty of seasons that ebb and flow. I stop to be still and in the rhythm of Dogs meditative heartbeat.

Winter with snowflakes that fall ever so gently covering the earth in a quiet hush. Trees so stark with their bare branches extending to the sky. Faithful to the sun knowing that their friends, the leaves, will soon become one with their branches once again.

Spring with Goldfinches flitting from branch to branch. A Robin, ear to the ground, listening and waiting for her next meal. The wind gently blowing through the tiny leaves on the birch tree—nature’s own wind chime. Tiny blades of grass kissed with the dew of the morning. Rain that washes away the old and brings in the new. A rainbow that presents itself as a reminder of hope and all the good in the world.

Summer with hummingbirds zooming in and out, landing but for a brief power sip of nectar from the feeder hanging above. Fresh new spurts of growth emerging from the flower bed next to the garage. Lightning that streaks across the sky in an orchestrated concert with Mother Nature as the conductor. Butterflies floating on the waves of summer breezes.

Fall with the leaves turning brilliant orange, yellow and red. Leaves ever so slowly gliding down from the branches, dancing across the front yard as if to the beat of their own drum.Squirrels hustling from tree to tree gathering their winter feast.

Almost nightly a star twinkling in the sky that catches my eye if I sit in the moment long enough. The moon that casts a warm glow over the earth, into my heart, and down to my toes.

Dog reminds us there is beauty everywhere. We don’t have to look far. It is right here, right now, straight ahead, all around, and within.

What has your animal friend taught you about appreciating beauty?

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Wednesdays with the Wisdom of Dog: Stillness

Posted by Barbara Techel

IMG_2260 eI’m starting a new weekly series right here on my online journal, “Wednesdays with the Wisdom of Dog.” Each week I’ll share a lesson I’ve learned from my dogs, or write about something I feel they are trying to teach us. I hope you will enjoy it. I welcome your thoughts on any of the lessons or teachings that resonate with you.

As I gave thought to doing this weekly series the word that immediately popped into my head was stillness. So this is the lesson from Dog that I’ll begin this series with.

I think our dogs are masters at teaching us stillness. That is, if we are willing to pay attention and participate.

Perhaps this is just the state of being that I’ve found myself in for quite some time now, though one I grapple with on and off. It’s not always an easy place to be, that is for sure – for we restless, on-the-go, achieving humans that we are.

But as I sat looking at Gidget the other day contemplating the lesson in stillness, I heard in my mind, “Sit. Stay. Staay. Staaaay….listen. Hear that? Hush. Trust me. It’s there. Slowly tune into opening one ear. Good. Now the other. Hear it now?” Was that Gidget sharing this message with me?

I took a deep breath, and let it all out. Whooossssh.

There it was. A vast open space of what felt like nothingness all around me. Not really nothingness, but rather a calm, presence of peace that slowly and gently covered me like a warm blanket, lightly flowing from the top of my head, down to my feet. A letting go of thoughts wanting to spin an endless loop in my mind, but gently slipped away out into this open, vast space of nowhere.

What at first felt like nothing, was actually what feels like home in my heart. That right and still place within me. The center of me, who I truly am, connecting with that something that is bigger than myself—a Spirit of my understanding.

It’s always there. It only goes away when we rush through our lives, trying to figure everything out. Trying to have answers now. Trying to control every. single. moment.

But it’s the stillness that brings answers. Sometimes the answer is stillness itself and there is nothing that needs to be figured out. Right here and right now is all we need to be.

Have you felt this stillness when in the presence of being with your dog?

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Should you enjoy the writing you find here, you may wish to subscribe to my newsletter (on right hand side of post) or my RSS Feed. I’d love it if you would also share through your favorite social media network. Thanks for visiting!