First off, I’d like to introduce a new addition to our family. Welcome Nala, a toy fox terrier mix who arrived at our home on Tuesday evening.
She’s a cutie, huh? And a bundle of energy, too. I have to say that I’d forgotten how much work having a dog is (and we’ve fostered many dogs from Siberian Huskies down to a little Chihuahua). Still after six years with my cat only, it was a surprise. My cat is moody, yes, but like a typical cat he usually keeps to himself the majority of the time. The past two days have been kind of rough transition for both us and the dog. She seems to be somewhat housebroken but doesn’t seem to know any simple commands such as ‘sit’, ‘stay’, and ‘heel.’ Most of my efforts to get her to sit or get off the couch had been in vain. To top it off after the initial shyness, she is turning out to be quite hyper much to my cat’s disdain! Seems like we have a long way to go. If history is any indication, my own dog training skills kind of sucks but what better opportunity to learn?
Anyway it made me think of how quick I usually am to expect that things work out easily, not only with the dog, but with everything in life. For a while, I was wondering if keeping this dog was such a great idea after all. But then I remember when I first brought my cat home. Then he was a blind three week old kitty who pooped and threw up everywhere. He was extremely moody for years before he became the much calmer, more affectionate cat he is today.
I remembered how when my sister was brought home from the hospital and how all the attention turned to her for months. This was after spending six years as the only child so you can imagine how resentful I felt in the beginning. You could never tell that now because my sister and I couldn’t get much closer than we are now. I’m pretty lucky to have a sister I get along with so amazingly well. She isn’t perfect and neither am I, but we are perfect for each other and that’s what matters.
Then I thought of many of my friends. Sure, not all of my old friends are still friends today. But the ones that are I’m very happy to have. We didn’t always start out close but the bond that we have now is much stronger. It’s always a work in progress but we seem to understand each other a lot more than we did in the past. I could say the same of my relationship with my parents also.
I definitely didn’t like my job and I wasn’t used to getting up every single weekday to come to work in the beginning but now it’s beginning to grow on me. It’s far from perfect and it definitely isn’t the ideal job for me either but I can appreciate it much more today. I was sick the entire weekend and took the day off on Monday but I was anxious to get back to work on Tuesday. Not because I was excited to see more accounting sheets or more errors made by accounts payable or make even MORE adjustments before the end of the fiscal year. I just didn’t feel productive sitting at home and it was now engrained in me to come to work.
A lot of my worries over the past month had to do with me not liking where my life was headed professionally and my general dissatisfaction with my social life as welll. I was just confused in general and now that I look back I can see that it’s because I expected everything to fall into place immediately and run smoothly at all times. Life just doesn’t work like that. We all know that but it’s so easy to forget it. I forget it all the time. And I always look back, slap my forehead and wonder to myself what my problem was.
I think Leo Babauta said it best: “Expect the glass to break. And accept it.” In short, if you see the world as imperfect and you see the glass as already broken for the beginning, it will be much easier to not sweat the small stuff, have a peace of mind, and enjoy life. I think it’s a neat variation of ‘expect the worst and hope for the best.’
I found another insightful blog from Shanel Yang talking about success. Her message is a little different from what I’m trying to get at here but it was still meaningful to me, nonetheless. Especially the quote about how seeing success as a linear path from A to Z is unrealistic. We always focus on the end point and not the journey in between; the journey won’t always be easy or pleasant but it’s all part of the experience. In fact those icky times make the good times even sweeter, don’t you think?
I’m looking forward to working and interacting with Nala. I know she’ll fit into our family (im)perfectly. I hope it works out between Nala and Sammy-boy, my cat. In fact, I’m positive it will. On a broader note I’m sure everything will work out for me as well. I frequently have my days where I’m like Chicken Little and I think the sky is falling. Hey, I’m human after all. But in the long run I believe eventually I will find my place in the world and I will always have people I love to share that with along the way. I’ll probably look back on the hard times I’ve had recently and smile. And I’ll look forward to future hardships with much more knowledge and understanding. If history is any indication.
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