31 January

I suppose it's possible

I could scare you away

Make you run off

Terrify you too much

Although...

What is more likely is that

I will tackle you with love

Dare you to NOT fall in love with me

And make us friends forever...

30 January

There is so much to know

So many curiosities and mysteries

And while it may seem odd

To YOU

I find my mouth the most wondrous discovery tool!!!

29 January

When I lean into

Anyone

Anything, even

In the certain way I DO

I am like the great gas pump

Filling whatever or whoever

With all my love

To energise and encourage

Their hopes and dreams.

28 January

It's good to taste things

And know them

Like the taste of salt

In the ocean

That reminds me

DO NOT DRINK

This water, please

Or...

27 January

Born on Easter Sunday

A penchant for hopping

And my earliest days

Spent round these deer

I suppose it's no wonder

I love the whole World

Exuberantly

Certain we are all of us

One BIG glorious family.

26 January

In my BEginning days and months

I was like most little girls

Well, most furry 4-legged girls

I imagined myself the Queen

I ruled and let others serve me

All of it most benevolently

Mind you...

Yet when I was a year old

A long while AFTER this photo was taken

I met a man who discouraged my pinecone snacks

My sticks that I loved shredding

And pretty much all my time-passing pleasures.

He was working with me to bring out something else

Something unique in ME

The ME he called:

Princess Gracie!!!

25 January

I love my face

The same face

I have Now

Only bigger

More filled-in

Or filled-out

And white

NOT that I am old

It's just gone white

Perhaps for good reason

To remind the World

I am NOT a puppy

I just play one in Real Life

Love,

Gracie

24 January

I think I am fierce

Bold

Brave

Undaunted

By anything

And this works

For ME...

WhatAboutYou?!

What's the Secret to YOUR Silliness?!!

23 January

Every one of us

Human, canine, whatever

Makes discoveries

Has the capacity to 

BE surprised

Amazed

DeLIGHTed

And even

Amused

By ourselves.

22 January

That's a pretty high quality problem to have, don't you think?! What are YOUR high quality problems?! What is there that YOU are calling a problem that you might instead see as an opportunity for growth and discovery?!

21 January

Once again I find it so amazing that I was this small. And yet... All of us start out smaller, even if it IS only our physical size that is small. 

Someone told me a few years ago that no one is born walking. Now, I think she may have been talking more about people than dogs BEcause I was walking pretty soon after I was born.

But I think her point, and why I even mention it here, was that everyone grows in Life: Into, Out of, BEyond, and even BEcause of...

Yet sometimes the things we did or loved or BEgan when so small carry on within us. Like my ballies and my abiding love for them. 

This is what I'm thinking...

20 January

It is interesting to BE reminded of our former selves. To actually see a picture of ourself that WE cannot remember is a curious thing. While we KNOW it is, indeed, ourself, we are incapable of wrapping our mind round this fact.


Over the next several days I will BE using a whole lot of what humans call their "baby pictures" to inspire me. MayBE you would like to play along???


Here's how: find a picture of a young you, as young as you can find, though I know you may NOT have any "baby pictures" on hand.


Then, spend a little time with your picture. If you can edit it somehow, like this one of me that was so out of focus, notice how that experience feels inside you. How it is to rearrange the past simply by altering a photograph.


Notice your feelings. Listen to your thoughts. Then, mayBE, create something that holds onto those thoughtsandfeelings while reminding you that you've come a long way since then...


EnJOY!!

19 January

It is hard to BElieve that I am actually this old AND I was once as little as this photograph reveals.


I've just always BEEN Me, Gracie, but somehow I think I am the only one who gets that.


MayBE EVERYone feels this way. Like ME feeling I was hiding and this picture revealing that I am in plain sight.


Whoa!! I better take a nap after thinking that deeply this early!!

18 January

I think that even if it means you have to have a bath and BE brushed a LOT that when you can go full-out in mud 

YOU MUST DO IT!!!

17 January

BE Who You Are

FEEL What You Feel

Take Time Just To

Live

Taste

Experience

Discover

&

BE 

Utterly Amazed

DeLIGHTed

& 

Present

YES!!!!!

16 January

Perspective: It's All In How We Look At Things

If what you are seeing makes you happy

BE Happy

If what you aren't seeing makes you happy

BE Happy

If what you are or aren't seeing makes you sad

Or angry

Or frustrated

OR...

Ask yourself: 

What Could I DO?

How Can I Help?

What Can I Bring?

This is what I DO

How I Live

And yeah, it's working for me

Big Time!!

wiggles & kissies

Gracie

15 January

A Watchful Apprentice

I am a watcher. Yes, I know I sometimes look like a grumpy puss when I DO this, as this photo captures exquisitely...

In this photo I am watching painting and prep going on. I am wearing my Very Long Face BEcause I just DO this that way.

It's important, sometimes, to consider what we're saying when there is a certain look on our face or in the way we are BEing or DOing something.

Notice this, quietly, and see what someone's facial expression or body posturing says to you. I notice this and it tells me a LOT about who could use a little love and leaning into.

14 January

Exuberant Gracie Rainbow of Love

I love my bunny ears, the way all my legs are in a row, and the fact that my tail looks like it's in mid-wag.

I love all the colours in me and my bright red tongue [especially because my real tongue is very colourful!!].

I love that while I take a pretty darned good picture, this wee drawing has caught things that the camera just does NOT seem to see!!

13 January

Beautimous

What I See When I Look This Way

It’s NOT simple to describe

My view

Or my perspective

And it doesn’t really have words

To contain it

Or make it make sense

To YOU

12 January

AHHHHHHH...

I love to roll on my back in magnificent exuberant JOY!!! I have been this way all my Life. And while there ARE times when this creates some challenges, it ALWAYS brings smiles and tummy rubs.


Training and Changing are all good, I really DO BElieve this, and yet Accepting and Delighting are also good, mayBE even MORESO than some BElieve.


Letting my little freak flag fly is like when Rocky runs up those steps. Yeah, I like that, Now mayBE we can compose music to accompany my rolls?!

11 January

Alone & By Myself

Although there are many NOT-so-nice words slathered upon BEing alone and by oneself, I have a different view. I notice that alone by myself I have great adventures and wondrous ideas. 

Perhaps it is BECAUSE I am such a social butterfly, and when I am out amongst the World and People I am so busy loving and BEing loved. Still, I love my alone times, my quiet spaces, my opportunities simply to BE with ME.

10 January

My Healer Extraordinaire

Sometimes, NOT often, just sometimes, I will let my mind wander backwards. It helps when there is a picture like this one, but truth BE told, I have a memory no matter what the experts say about dogs and their present tense living.

I look at this picture and I'm taken back to a time when I really made a difference. A time when more than kissies and love, I gave real HOPE to someone.

What's funny is thinking that it's ONLY EVER the Big Things we DO that matter or make a difference in others' lives. This is why each morning when we are in town on our Morning Adventure I get so excited. It is impossible to NOT BE excited when a little lean, a little smile, and a little love can actually turn the Light on in someone's day.

Rarely does anyone question my BEing a Service Dog anymore. I may NOT act like a true Service Dog but I am definitely of Service and despite my exuberant nature, I take this JOB seriously. 

There are lives that depend upon it. Upon ME.

9 January

Live On The Edge

This is a picture of me when I was still quite small. I had this little gated "room" where I hung out and it had plenty of room where I could even run and slide [what else is a wood floor good for?!] but mostly every picture of me IN my "room" you'll see me at the edge.

I suppose this is significant in that it describes me and lets me know who I am, who I have been, and how I'll likely BE as long as I get to keep all 4 of me feet on the ground.

Living on the edge isn't something to BE avoided, it's NOT a dangerous way to play, it's just a way to LIVE. And in my opinion, it's the way I like best.

8 January

Waiting On Life

Waiting is tricky. It's encouraged, for sure, especially of ME when I am oh-so-excited to SEE someone, or to get something nibblish from wherever I find it. I have struggled all my Life to BE able to wait on something wonderFULL to happen or BE.

But here's what I am finding, Now that I am nearing 7 years old: Waiting is worth the effort. It always pays off, and does so in ways I'd NEVER have imagined or expected.

Some call waiting "delaying gratification" and mayBE that is true. I just call it a wiser course to follow and a better way to live.

7 January

Life can scare even the bravest of souls. And I admit that it does, from time to time scare even ME!! So when Fear comes and taps me on the head, pushing through to the front and center, I remember times like this. Times when I was utterly determined body and soul to experience the water and mud with Fearless Exuberance. 

What image of YOU can YOU hold onto when Fear comes tapping?!

6 January

I am a bit overly determined sometimes. Of course, clearly, this is something I arrived with and NOT something I picked up along the way.

Sometimes I get myself into something I then realise I don't want to have got myself into and I get utterly befuddled. At such times I simply have to Let Go.

This can BE hard to DO. I know. It happens to me often. Still... I think it is a good skill to have, and to develop. Letting Go.

5 January

C'mon In!! The Water's GRR~Ate!!

Life is a curious thing, something it seems the human beans forget to remember when things go NOT the way they'd planned or intended. For someone like ME, however, it's a Very Different Story. 


This picture was taken on Christmas Day 2008. The parking lot where we were living would flood when the rain came. That's just how it goes in a dry place like Arizonie. 


I thought it was magnificent and On BEyond Spectaculicious. Sometimes things go a totally different way than what we're expecting or even ready for. THAT'S WHEN we should BE most enthusiastic...

4 January

We All Fit Somewhere We Don't Fit Anymore

It's simple... and it is true for all of us. Sometimes we outgrow something [or someone] and then we spend all sorts of time and energy figuring out what WE or THEY did "wrong" when actually, what has happened is Life & Time & Change...

This is what I know when I look at this picture of me inside a basket under a table in my first home in Sedona. It is remarkable to ME that I ever WAS that small, and sort of cool at the same time, y'know?! 

But Now I fit other places, Now I can GO other places I could NEVER EVER have gone when I was so small. Perhaps this is Life's Balancing Act.

3 January

I'm NOT Going To Jump, Just LOOK!!!

This picture tells a part of my story that I want to share with you. Sometimes we are intrigued, captivated by the mystery of something. Someplace. We go right to the edge of it, we see it that close, and then we need to step back.

Stepping back is good. Sometimes it's the Very Best Thing. Knowing what you want is good, too. But sometimes it's the knowing and trusting all in good time that's more important.

2 January

I Can Sit & I Can Wait... Sometimes

I'm a good girl. I listen. I hear. I remember. And I always intend to BE good. But sometimes, well, I get a wild hair and go a little wild. And despite the troubles this can bring, I'll likely NOT change.

This is the sort of thing we all SHOULD know about ourselves. Our intentions and our tendencies. We've got to live with them both and accept them. We can change things, if we choose, but only when we ourselves choose to change WILL we change.

1 January

A New Year

BEgins

Every Day