Hey YOU!~ Sometimes the greatest plan that ends up creating our day is NOT the plan we orignally had in MIND. I had a plan after teaching my own classes here at Road Home EMpower in Ptown to get right down to Cambridge to my own favorite teaches and people at my sweat cave at Baptiste Power Yoga Institute.
For some reason, I began to talk about dogs and animals in my own teaching about how yoga connect us CLOSER to all things, and all people , I realized PETS have to fit in there too... As I headed down the street to my car, my own teaching and insights to my students about furry things and felines etc, got to ME most. I began thinking less of Cambridge and more about Calvin , my black lab pooch instead. I decided to forgo the travel.. as there was something else I felt compelled to do instead..Letting all my downdogs REconnect me with my pup.. I will also mention that as a teacher, I care to only keep it real, nor will I take people where I myself have not been.
Calvin is our family dog, which means I see him day in and day out. After the novelty wears off, we get into the familiar , the daily habit of having him around.. Something happens the way it happens for all of us.. We get used to something or someone and we get comfortable. In our comfort with them we FALL ASLEEP to what they are doing in our lives or to the aliveness of gratitude and appreciation for them. Happens to ALL of us.
How do I know this? Simple. I am JUST as human as YOu. I, too can fall asleep or allow comfort to cancel things out most vital when I get busy. The ONLY REAL difference in an AImee most people find UNreal? Often as fast as I lose sight and begin to snooze, something gets me to wake up and FEEL where I lost my way or who I lost connection with.. As often as we forget , we get the chance to REmember those members of our lives that mean the most. We begin to wake up faster and faster the more we practice yoga , which fosters a sense of being AWAKE and SIMPLY CONSCIOUS , while feeding our brains and bodies with O2.
We learn on our yoga mat that losing touch with US has us fall OUT of touch soon after with things and people that matter most...
I make it a point to NOT allow that to go down for to long. .Something in me felt how being busier lately, and being crazy in love lately had others in the family caring for him, but I personally had not had any real time with him lately.
I got to thinking about this , and realized I had the ability to shift this .. No doubt as I began to miss my dog, I FELT how much he had been jonesing for me also..
The car seemed to turn itself around from Cambridge and I discovered my REAL yoga practice of Downdog became more alive to me than JUST a pose.. which is the whole point of this yoga thang anyway..
HUMAN connection.. Human heart REconnection with a crazy little black lab pooch called Calvin Hobb......
As soon as I pulled in, he seemed to sniff out that I was there , before he actually saw me. DOGS are TUNED in.... When I opened the door, he looked at me like "Oh, fancy you stopping by, what do I owe the privelege? Suddenly, he heard me say "Where is your ball dude?" and he stopped short, cocked his head, like "Huh?" Wait , your here to hang OUT with MEEEEEEEE??? JUST MEEEEEEE? His tail went wild as he tore through the house hunting for his drooly ball...
He could not get out the door and down to the car fast enough. Clearly, despite a bit of time NOt having much down time for Calvin time, HE did not forget ME.. What is more, he was only to happy to just get BACK to hanging and NOT holding it against me. He had NO interest in guilting me for NOT being there.. That Empowered ME to let go of some personal guilt. By the way? Guilt for what we weren't doing , for NOT being there, with whatever or whoever THERE is... creates a ROADBLOCK that keeps us from being PRESENT when we DO SHOW UP...Ever notice how the very thing that gets us back to something keeps us also from being FULLY PRESENT once we get back there? Guilt and Shame always feed more guilt , and kill the gift of our FULL attention.
Try it Calvins way , cut yourself some slack.. Guilt is not needed , just a FULL presence to say" I am sorry , but I am here NOW."
I ended up driving him up to Rattlesnake Mtn to OUR favorite hiking trail. Calvin is LOW maintance, just simply throw Calvin a trail in the woods, and maybe throw down an icecream cone from the Dairy Joy after getting off the mountain and he will give you all the free mad love in the world.
Now, when Calvin and I have the trail and mountain more to OURselves.. he gets to be free to roam ahead without being confined to his leash. However, a day like today, the down dog sunny days of summertime packed the trail with a line up from top to bottom. Not usually easy for him.. In the past, meaning the very RECENT past.. He really had his work cut out for him, meaning I had MY work cut out for me to keep him OFF folks and adapt a "look but don't touch" approach.
Calvin is a black lab and if you know dogs at all, then it goes without really having to explain that labs as a rule are here with HUGE ENTHUSIASM and ENERGY to LOVE US and LAP us UP in LOVE.. They seem to sense who the HELL NEEDS LOVE.. often the ones who fight it the most..
He normally wants to say HI in a way that makes people want to say "BYEEEEE!" no matter how much I say "Down boy" or "Heel"..
His heart is to much in the way to hear that I guess...
Let me backtrack, not only does he fit the bill of his breed, black labs have BIG ENERGY , and BIG ENTHUSIASM for people .... They seem to want to not just love us, but love us with NO HOLDS BARRED. A insight that is difficult for people who often hold back or only allow SO MUCH love and lapping IN. Or simply those who have had a lesser doggie style about animals based on a frighening experience not soon forgotten.
Calvin is ALL HEART.. SOmetimes , love does NOT come in the package we prefer it.. For insance , he has SUCH a organic fondness for my landlords's crotch, and gets so crazy excited about my beloved boyfriend , he literally pees on his pin striped pants, nearly EVERY time, even if he just lifted his leg outside , and zero guilt crosses his mind about a dry cleaning bill either.. nor the threat of a possible eviction of the dog being in our abode. I will pause so you can insert your fond memories of Scooby's "RUT RO"
Only today was WONDERFULLY different!!! My dog seemed to actually hear me when I viewed a parking lot full of vehicles, camps , families..
"Okay Calvin, THIS is how THIS is going to go down"
Only Calvin seemed to already know and understand without a need for me to say anything!
Calvin connected with this BIGGER part of SOULFUL self that seemed to help him get that LESS is more for people... and that jumping on people would not get him any love . Calvin , like anyone else wants to be LOVED and TO LOVE People .. I realized today with more awakening to that insight.. it is what he is HERE to do, what ALL PETS have come to do in my life , or your life , ALL OF US.. There is nothing like being loved by someone who LOVES US.. NOTHING!
WE often can be more comfortable letting a pet love us than we do letting people in. Calvin composed himself in such a way that it made EVERY MAN, WOMAN, and CHILD come RUNNING HIS WAY.. instead of AWAY from him because of fear, or irritation or both...
Calvin sat and stood on the mountain and on the trails staying put, on HIS side of the tracks so to speak. .Happy to be alive and out there and hanging out again, that he lost his interest in knocking people down like live bowling pins.. and instead , was on his BEST behavior... The effect and reward for SUCH "good dogginess"? Letting everyone come to him, He was humbled , yet I could see how he was overjoyed with the attention he could offer people and receive. A line up of families and couples and children wanting to line up to see a dog that my landlord has yet to see in this light..
Baron Baptiste has this great principle in the yoga room.. The truth is , I teach all the time in my own classes , that the spirtual is MEANT TO BE UTILIZED to make our HUMAN life EASIER.. it MOST certainly applies here! What I can share with you is this.. ON THE MAT, OFF THE MAT, DROP what we THINK we know .. about ourselves, about our partners, our children , our lives.. DROP what we THINK we KNOW. Toss phrases like I KNOW already what YOUR going to do.. and let someone do the same old same old in a whole new way! Have the humility to EAT your own words~!
I got to experience with such awe a dog that I personally had YET TO KNOW before TOdAY.. How funny that I never saw it going like this, but rather with a mind that seemed hell bent to cling to what I ONLY ever knew about ol Calvin Hobb from PAST information and previous performance.
I had to DROP it to be able to SEE what NEW version he was trying to offer today.. DROP what I KNOW.. DROP what YOU think YOU know about someone or something and you MIGHT ALSO BE PLEASANTLY surprised. OUR holding on to an OLD way of someone's PREVIOUS behavior , response, actions, GETS IN THE WAY of allowing them to REcreate themselves. Worse, being so convinced we are correct, we cling to the old , and we SNOOZE on the present experience NOT being a rinse and repeat...
What if we ALL DROPPED what we so called KNOW and just OPENED back to UP to the VAST space of being OPEN and AVAILBLE to letting something REschool our thinking mind that can hold us or others hostage about yesterday, or "THE LAST TIME"...
Our intellect is valueable , but what is MOST valuable is EMPTYING OURSELVES so that their simply is more OPENNESS in the mind so that the NEW can be revealed to US.
Everyone felt different about my dog today, but I felt SUCH PRIDE in watching him GROW Up and SETTLE DOWN... How nice to get my own head out my own yoga butt and get out of my own way so that HE could show us all , himself included, he was INDEED more than I THOUGHT HE COULD BE.. He was NOT STUPID, or DEAF , Nor was He was NOT here to knock people on their ass, NOT REALLY .. but he humbled me and knocked me on MINE..
Thanks for letting me share.. Maybe something I say reaches you from the very place I will always write from.. INside..
That which we love comes through us from our heart , NOT our head.
Heart to Heart.. TO YOU.. Namaste.. Love!!! Love! Love!
Waitress4grace, Aimee D!
