Continuing the story of Lydia and Me
I had lunch at the World Peace Café today.
It may not be the only Peace Café in the World, but it is the only one that I know, in this part of the World. And it’s a good one.
The lunch followed a morning of Buddhist meditations and teachings, on how to overcome anger and frustration.
I’ve done a lot of work on my ‘anger issues’ over the last 3 decades but found recently that I needed to do more.
The principle presented in today’s teachings is to practise patient acceptance, with a loving heart.
There are some aspects of my life where I find this easy and joyful, such as the work I’m doing with Lydia. It does require patience, to keep repeating the same training routines and reassurances, and to keep looking for further ways to provide reassurance and help her overcome her fears.
On the other hand, having let go of most of my own anxieties now about being able to keep going on a sustained basis, I no longer feel under any self-induced pressure to achieve ‘outcomes’. We just do what we do, day by day. I love my time with Lydia, and I think Lydia enjoys her time with me too.
I got another ‘wake up’ call from her at 1.30’ish this morning.
This time she did want to go outside, which I presumed was for a toilet need.
Usually, she’ll come back in quite quickly and we settle ourselves down for some more “sleepy time” but this morning I waited a while and then went out to see where she was.
It was a warm and beautiful starry night.
I’m not great on constellations but I did recognise a clear ‘plough’ and a star that shone very brightly, which I thought may have been the North Star.
Thanks to Lydia, I had those few special moments looking up at the stars.
Sitting outside now, as I write, in the sunshine, after a mellow morning followed by a leisurely lunch, I do feel a sense of personal peace that I thought for a long time I would never be able to feel. Yesterday was grief and anger; today is peace.
I’ll still have to keep working at it: meditating; learning; relaxing; growing; writing; loving.
I’m lucky to have a lot of good things in my life and to be able to have days like I’m having today. I do wish that for others too.
My book, Train your dog; train your mind – positive reinforcement for humans and canines – is now available in paperback: https://amzn.eu/d/eQ2sWjU and for Kindle https://amzn.eu/d/99yW3Qk.
I don’t claim to be a dog trainer or a mind trainer – I’m just a woman with a dog who writes a blog, and has written a book, about life, and about being glad.
Glad About 