Somehow, it’s Wednesday again. This really shouldn’t be a surprise to me, though Monday holidays, like Memorial Day, tend to confuse things.
It feels a bit hectic around here!
There are goose necks roasting in the oven for a pot of broth.
I think every UPS truck in Georgia is going to show up here today.
The dogs are headed to Camp Jabula in a couple of hours. Tomorrow my contractor friend, Greg, is adding lights to my new studio space and to the hallway.
People on ladders playing with electricity and three enormous dogs have the potential for disaster.
Sadly, my beasties are just too smart. The Camp taxi is due about 3:00. I try really hard to keep them from realizing that they’re off to their favorite place because they get all bouncy and excited and our house is pretty small.
They also race to the window and bark at every car door in a three-mile radius.
(This is not usual behavior!)
They figured it out about 10:30 this morning.
I was trying to get a jump on the packing while Sarah and Luther were on their walk.
Phoebe ratted me out.
All I did was write their names on a zippee bag and put their pills inside it at a time of day that we don’t usually rattle the pills.
Game over!
Am hoping to sneak in the ice chest part of the prep while they’re outside about 1:30, though it probably won’t work.
These guys remind me every day about the power of pattern learning.
Something — whatever — happens, which “absolutely means” that something else will happen next.
Mom put pills in a bag which means we’re going to Camp.
(It usually does!)
Mom stood up from her chair which means it’s happening now.
(Not usually!)
People, of course, have been known to process things the same way.
Every time I try to paint eyes, I mess them up.
Well, not quite.
Often, I mess them up and do them again. And again.
Eventually, though, I get happy with them, which is kind of the opposite of messing them up.
And I’m pretty sure that, when I pick up a brush to start eyes, it might work better if I was thinking that I’ve learned to paint eyes I really like — which is something of a miracle right there — than if I was thinking that every time I do this, I mess it up.
Now, Newfoundlands are smart dogs and they tend to have pretty large working vocabularies.
In fact, there are lots of words we have to spell to avoid enthusiasm riots. R-i-d-e is a good example.
C-a-m-p is the biggest one.
D-i-n-n-e-r is also a major deal.
Naming things is hugely powerful.
So is the perception of cause and effect.
Even better, though, is the notion of possible outcomes.
Whatever happened before. Then something else happened. Yes.
But, today, something else might happen. There might be new opportunities!
Today, the dogs are right.
I put pills in a plastic bag and, in a couple of hours, they’re going to C-a-m-p.
Hopefully, the wiring will get safely done tomorrow and on Friday they will come home.
(Bill and I are going crazy and having date night Thursday evening!)
It’s helpful though, at least to me, to remember that we not only have more options than what’s been true in the past, we can create more options just by remembering that we have them.
I’m not sure the dogs will buy it, but I appreciate all their reminders that it’s true.
At least I don’t have to sew their names in their underwear before they leave!