Do you ever envy your dogs? The innocence they possess allows them to openly abandon all caution and just barrel through life. They know nothing of guilt, don’t dwell on the past and live in the moment. If a dog ever chose his or her life motto, it would be “carpe diem”–seize the day. Although if you were to ask my dogs, they would say their motto really should read “carpe omnia”–seize everything: my socks, my shoes, my plants, each other.
Rufus prepares to seize the day with a goofy grin on his face.
We humans spend a good amount of our childhood wishing we could hurry and grow up already. As adults, we look back and wonder where the time went. Today’s pace of life seems to have sped up tenfold in the last couple of decades. Is this because we, as adults, have so many more responsibilities and less free time or has the instant gratification we have become accustomed to forced us to go into overdrive? I suspect it is a combination of both. Life happens and we sometimes forget to stop and just enjoy the little things happening at that moment.
Grimm wallows in the grass, making his version of a grass angel.
Pablo Picasso, the Spanish artist, once said, “It takes a very long time to become young.” I’m fairly certain he wasn’t referring to senility causing child-like innocence, but rather our curious nature of wanting to return to the past, to relive our childhood days. The older we get, the more nostalgia seems to grip us. As I’ve become older, I find myself wanting to do childish things again: pick wildflowers, roll around in the grass, soar in a swing, putter around on a scooter, look for frogs. I’m thirty-six going on six. How the heck does that happen?
While wrestling, Rufus gets a mouthful of Grimm skin.
Watching my dogs wrestle and play, I am reminded of my own childhood. While I never pretended to eat my siblings, we did roughhouse and wrestle quite a lot and totally enjoyed every minute of it. We pretended to be surrounded by lava, jumping from couch to chair and back again, much to my mother’s irritation. We had our own secret society meetings in our little wooded area, using old cut up tree logs as benches. We fished for crawfish using strings with bacon tied on the ends. Life was simpler, we didn’t worry about the future, our imaginations ran wild.
Rufus tackles Grimm in a quest to restart their roughhousing.
Sometimes I have to stop and remind myself to give myself a break. Yes, I have about 1,001 projects I need to start (or finish), people I need to call back, chores that need doing. I feel guilty when I take a few moments for myself, knowing these other things need to be done. But when I stop and watch my dogs explore their environment and play with each other, I see how much happier they are, so much more fulfilled, getting to just be dogs and not having to be perfect little housemates, quietly watching the world go by around them. I don’t have to be perfect, either. Life is so much better when you enjoy the little things.
My herd of dogs, pretending to be cows munching on fresh green grass.
If there is one lesson I have learned about life from my canines, this is it: seize the day. No one ever died regretting doing more fun things in life. Take the time to play with friends, taste the grass (okay, well, feel it’s softness under your bare feet) and explore your environment. Apologize to no one when you feel the urge to act like a kid again. Don’t take yourself too seriously and don’t beat yourself up when you procrastinate and choose to pursue fun endeavors instead. Go. Carpe your diem.
Zella smiles after running around outside and playing with the other woofers.
“No matter what happens, always keep your childhood innocence. It’s the most important thing.”
-Federico Fellini
Grimm's Furry Tail 