The Best Kept Secret

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For those of you out there that don’t know me, I want to share with you that our family has two dogs.  In fact, these two dogs are very large dogs, both pure breed Labradors. As our dogs, Luke & Jake celebrated their 6^thand 8^th birthdays this year, all I can tell you is that this journey with them has been anything but calm. 

Between all of the things they have eaten over the years (slip-n-slides, brake lines, garage door sensors, beer cans from the fridge…yes, I said that correctly), to all of the things they have destroyed (drywall, trim, gallons of paint dumped on garage floors, & more dog beds than I can count), most people in our life wonder why we still have them.  One of our dogs, Jake, even has a health issue that requires us to feed him from a “doggie highchair” that my husband built for him.  I mean, seriously, you can’t make this stuff up, that is how crazy it is. 

And if I am being honest, I need to tell all of you that I too question why we have these dogs.  I probably question it on a daily basis.  Dogs are a lot of work…clearly… and they require a lot of attention which is something our family is not always good at. 

But as I look into the big brown eyes of our dogs, I have to admit, there is something about them that has always intrigued me.  They have some pretty amazing qualities that I think we all could benefit from acquiring in our own life.  They have a secret to life that us humans have not figured out yet and to me, it’s truly one of the best kept secrets around…until now. 

But I am getting ahead of myself.  Let me back up for just a minute. 

 A couple months back, I had a BYBS blog follower write in to me.  She was moved by a recent blog I had written and wanted to share her story.  This woman grew up in a family where her mother criticized her regularly (my friend was never good enough), and she had other members in the family constantly talk bad about her.  It wasn’t until she found her true love, her true soul mate, that she learned to be the person she wants to be.  She finally learned her self-worth because of his unconditional love.  

And while this all happened years and years ago, unfortunately, when it comes to her family, the damage was already done.  Her relationship with her mother and family members never recovered.  She has old wounds that just won’t heal.  The pain she feels inside, from how her family made her feel, is still raw as if it happened yesterday.  And my friend carries this hurt with her each and every day. 

And if I had to guess, I would imagine that may others out there are carrying around these same painful feelings too.  We have all had times where people have hurt us, have made us feel “less than” in our life.  We have all had struggles with people who make us feel crushed, who make us feel like a “nobody” with their criticism.  To my fellow blog follower, you are not alone in your pain.  We feel you.

So what do we do with this pain?  What do we do with the old wounds that won’t heal?  What do we do to try to move on when someone hurts us that deeply?

The answer to this problem is the secret that dogs have been keeping from us for years. Those sometimes infuriating yet fascinating animals know the answer to this problem, and we can so easily learn the solution by watching how they live their life.

Here is how I see my dogs live:

When our family messes up and forgets to feed them on time, or maybe when we don’t give them the attention they deserve, they don’t care.  They continue to be carefree and content. Nothing ever seems to bring them down!  And it’s because of their secret.

Their secret is that they know how to grant Forgiveness.  They forgive again and again and again.  No matter how many times we mess up as their owners, they keep on forgiving.  They keep on wagging that tail as if all is right and cheerful in the world.

What if we could all learn to forgive just as easily?  How could that impact our life?

Now I am sure some of you are thinking, “Why should I forgive someone in my life who isn’t even sorry?  Why should I let them off the hook?”  But here is the thing about forgiveness, it’s not to let them off the hook.  Forgiving someone is rarely about them.  Instead, it’s about YOU!  When we are like those cute puppies in our life and easily forgive and move on, it makes our life happier!  It makes us want to keep wagging our tails as if all is right in the world.  And who doesn’t want to be happy all of the time!?!

So to my blog follower and to all of you struggling out there with forgiveness, it’s time to let it go.  It’s time to move on and make yourself happy again.  It’s time to finally realize that people are not perfect, as much as we want them to be, and they will continuously make mistakes.  And when those mistakes hurt us, we need to let go of the pain and let those wounds heal…for US!  It’s time to forgive.  It’s time to forget.  It’s time to move on.

So while my dogs can be quite a pain sometimes when they eat the drywall or empty the fridge of our refreshments, what I have come to realize is that they deserve all the forgiveness that our family can give them.  Because when it comes to us being the best dog owners in the world, I know we don’t even come close to living up to that.  Yet our puppies have that best kept secret figured out… so they choose to still love us just the same. 

Xoxo

Marsha

*For those of you struggling with something in life or have a topic of interest that you want me to talk about in this blog, email me at BeYourBestSelfBlog@gmail.com.  Let’s work together to Be Our Best Selves!

Photo Credit: Photo by Anna Shvets from Pexels