Many of us have been enchanted at some time or another by the wisdom that emanates “out of the mouths of babes” . . . but how about puppies?
With a two-year-old German Shepherd Dog, Quest, and an eight-month-old Golden Retriever puppy, Storm, we’re in the position to learn a whole lot about life from our four-legged family members. And learn we do; having little other choice
After salvaging one of my all-time favorite books (Stillness Speaks by Eckhart Tolle) from Storm’s enthusiastic jaws, I paged through its wisdom once again.
In case you’re not familiar with it, the book’s introduction explains that it “can be seen as a revival for the present age of the oldest form of recorded spiritual teachings: the sutras of ancient India. Sutras are powerful pointers to the truth in the form of aphorisms or short sayings, with little conceptual elaboration. The Vedas and Upanishads are the early sacred teachings recorded in the form of sutras, as are the words of Buddha. The sayings and parables of Jesus, too, when taken out of their narrative context, could be regarded as sutras, as well as the profound teachings of the Tao Te Ching, the ancient Chinese book of wisdom. The advantage of the sutra form lies in its brevity. It does not engage the thinking mind more than is necessary.”
This is one of the gems that I found:
“Mastery of life is the opposite of control.” – Eckhart Tolle, Stillness Speaks
Well, puppies must be among the greatest spiritual teachers of this particular lesson, as per Exhibit A above. Witness Exhibit B, in the form of the sorry remains of our garden hose:
And some irrefutable proof of the Accused in action:
In the greater scheme of things, though, these minor indiscretions really are MINOR. The devastation of our sprinkler system was more of a team effort, as you can see from the Defendants shown below:
Still, all things considered, including the 3 panels of our car that Quest took care of in his puppyhood (see previous post Dog Whispering Decision), Storm recently won the prize hands paws down for The Most Expensive Puppy On The Planet, when he gobbled down Dave’s state-of-the-art hearing aids.
The less said about that the better, but if ever we were under the illusion of being in control, we’ve been unceremoniously reminded that we’re not.
Nothing to do now except claim the silver lining of grace by acceptance and aim for the much loftier mastery of life . . . thank you, Puppies!
