Thanksgiving Life Lessons from a Dog
by Douglas Green
The word is out. There’s something wrong with Thanksgiving.
As with so many other holidays, we have ruined its original concept with enforced “traditions:” Macy’s parade, turkey, stuffing and pumpkin pie, and televised football. Don’t get me wrong, I like all of these traditions, I just don’t know what they have to do with gratitude. To find a way, I turn to the greatest teachers on gratitude I’ve ever known: dogs. Never unselfish, but habitually giving credit whenever they see it due. Thanksgiving Life Lessons from a Dog.
True Thanksgiving
Here are some canine keys to true Thanksgiving life lessons: Sit in your front doorway and look around. A clever pooch knows this is the best place to relax. He can watch everything going on outside, while poised to jump if any food should drop. And it’s a perfect first stop on the gratitude trail.
What sort of home do you have? Do you rent or own? Does the doorway reveal a Downton Abbey landscape or a parking lot? Whichever, sit on that threshold and find twenty things you appreciate about your shelter and the astounding world outside it. If you can’t, you’re not looking hard enough.
Pretend that everyone in your life didn’t have to be there, or do what they’ve done for you. Then realize that’s the truth. We laugh at the enthusiasm pups show over the simplest things – their human, a treat or leash. But only because we take those sights for granted. What if you never assumed the one who’d cared for you would come home? What if you harbored doubts about ever tasting another cookie?
Then look at your present relationships. Your parents, your spouse, your friends, and even your dog. Take a moment to ask what your life would be like with any of them not there, or not caring about you.
Scary? Then take it further; focus on your love for them. Feel it till your heart could burst. That appreciation, that pain, is what dogs feel for us all the time. When they’re staring up from the floor, unable to intellectualize their feelings as we do. That’s being alive.
Whatever your religious beliefs, pretend you’re wrong. Dogs lack dogma. Their brains aren’t big enough to perceive a rationale for the universe. Dogs are neither theist nor atheist, sectarian nor agnostic. Instead, they just appreciate. Do any of us honor the sun like a pup who shifts her sleeping to follow the rays? Do we run out after rains to absorb every enhanced scent?
Life lessons
Take a breath, close your eyes, and forget all that you believe about why the world is what it is. When you free your brain from the “why,” let it all roll over you. The enormity of outer space, the miracle of an ant, the luck of our proximity to the sun, the breathtaking complexity of your own body. When you open your thought to the wonderment of life, you cannot help but be grateful.
Now these canine behaviors create their own rewards, but there’s a higher goal here too. I learned it from a dog.
Goal for day
That should be our goal for the day. For thanks to go all the way around – everyone beholden to everyone – and the emotion overwhelming with its simplicity to where you realize that this is really the way the whole world should be. The way all of life should be.
Douglas Green is a psychotherapist, specializing in helping kids and teens build lives they can be proud of. He is also the creator and writer for AskShirelle.com, which helps kids, teens, parents, and others around the world with advice from the point of view of a friendly dog, and is the author of the upcoming book, The Teachings of Shirelle – Life Lessons from a Divine Knucklehead. Learn more about Green at www.CavalleriaPress.com, and connect on Facebook and Twitter.