A Bit of Fall in August

It feels like fall today and it makes me excited for Halloween, cooler days and walking through the leaves. It does not make me excited about the fact that in 2.5 weeks we'll all have to get up earlier and figure out how to get 3 dogs worn out before we head out the door.

This morning I took Lucy for a 3-mile walk, up to USU and through the cemetery a few times, in the rain and when we got home, she had more energy than when we left! Alyssa, the dog trainer, did say the other day that for dogs, walking isn't a great way to get out their energy. She recommended playing tug-of-war, which I'd resisted because I'd read it encouraged aggressiveness. Alas, it appears that raising dogs is like raising children, you hear many different ways of doing it right and sometimes they are completely contradictory! Also, as with raising Sophie, Steve and I have different opinions about things and sometimes that can cause a bit of strife. So, the stress of the dogs got to us today and I ended up in tears, and Lucy put her head on my lap and the puppies cuddled with me. As I pointed out to Soph, how can a person be sad with this much joy...but again, it's like with our children. We love them to no end, and yet it is in raising them that we often become so stressed, so frustrated and so blinded that we miss the mark.

I often ask Sophie, "What did Emily say?" which is her cue to quote Emily from Our Town, "People just don't look at each other anymore," and I don't think those are the exact words Thornton Wilder used, but it's how I remember it. Life is so crazy and full of extraneous stuff and it is that stuff that usually makes us miss out on what is most important. And having said that, now I can plug my latest cause...Don't Text and Drive!! Live in the moment. Be the Buddha!

P.S. As Sophie tries to find humor in my sentimental moments, as in the Emily quoting above, she usually responds with something like, "People just don't yell at their moms anymore..." or "People just don't wear green diapers anymore..." which makes me laugh.