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Today I thought I’d be efficient and take Jon Snow on a run with me around the lake, getting him his exercise while I got mine. Bad move. In addition to the physically grueling task of wrestling with him the entire time while he pulled this way and that, training him to “heel”, stopping to soothe him (overstimulation, his first time seeing a choo-choo train, lots of people running, etc) and his absolute NEED to run up to Every. Single. Dog. as if his whole life depended on it, the “run” took over 2 hours (3 miles). I’m exhausted.
The best thing, though, was how EVERYBODY’s faces light up when they see him. I saw more people smile today than any other day in recent memory. Everybody just wants to love him up, and he’s all for it. And the reason why goes beyond just the fact that he’s beautiful. A lot of people comment on how pretty he is. But their faces light up when they see him because he’s Just. SO. Darned. Excited. to see you. ALL of you! Every last one of you. The moment Jon Snow sees you, he becomes utterly beside himself with excitement. He’s overflowing with joyful exuberance, and in that moment the single most important thing in the world to him is just to jump on you and slobber you with kisses. There’s no self-consciousness, no self-doubting, ‘oh, they probably don’t like me’, or ‘I should be cooler’, ‘I should behave more “appropriate’, etc. It never occurs to him that anyone should not be just as excited to see him as he is to see them. He’s not thinking about himself or what you think of him. He’s got no shame. He doesn’t care about “appropriate”. He stops and pees in the middle of the running path. He jumps on strangers and slobbers them with kisses. He thinks every single dog he meets is dying to play with him. He’s un-tethered by self-reflection, and in that he is FREE.
He is a jiva mukti: a free soul.
I used to work so hard at being a jiva mukti that I disqualified myself.
Makes me think, how different would people respond to me if I acted like? What if, the moment people showed up, I got so excited to love on them that I’d have to pee my pants? I bet my life would be a whole different ball of wax.
#PuppyWisdom
#EverybodyLovesJonSnow
#JonSnowDoesntKnowAnythingButLove
#BeMoreLikeJonSnow
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Photo courtesy of the author.