"All we need is just a little patience." - Guns N' Roses
We watched the Feipel dog this past weekend. Actually, from Wednesday night until Monday evening.
It went okay, but maybe lasted a day or three too long for me, and the poor dog. I mean, we got along okay, but, truth be told..... I'm a 'cat person.' It takes a LOT for me to tolerate a dog around me. Not that I don't like them, but they require a lot of attention and I don't have much to spare.
Jane did a good job of taking him for walks (she likes dogs). I would tie him out now and then, although I did take him out to his house a couple times to run around. Unfortunately he must not have understood, because he mostly just wanted back in the car for a ride.
Anyway, things weren't too terrible until the last night. The neighbors decided to light off some fireworks. The dog (Boone is his name) didn't seem too adversely affected by them, but for the rest of the night he was real skittish. He would growl or bark at seemingly nothing.... ALL THROUGH THE FREAKING NIGHT!!! I don't think I got a full hour's sleep the entire night, and at one point I'd had enough and, while he was in our bed and started barking, I went to just smack him, and I hit him pretty hard on the head. He got up and left the room. For the rest of the night. Of course then I felt bad. He avoided me the next morning too. I didn't really mean to hit him that hard, but I was plenty mad when I did it. Hopefully he's forgotten about it.
PATIENCE
The whole time we had him I was trying to be extra patient. I haven't always been aware that dogs have feelings too. I don't want to dislike them - and I don't, really - but I just don't have a great deal of patience. So I was trying. And, as is so often the case, I failed pretty miserably in the end.
I've been working through this 'Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Program' (which I would recommend). One of the '7 Essential Attitudes of Mindfulness Practice' is patience (The 7 are: Non-Judging, Patience, Beginner's Mind, Trust, Non-Striving, Acceptance, and Letting Go). Under Patience it says:
Patience is the ability to bear difficulty with calm and self-control. It requires connection with your core, faith and courage. It also requires kindness and compassion for yourself as you bear the upset of a situation. Impatience often arises when ego, the self-centered part of self, rails against reality, wanting things to be different than they actually are. In contrast, the wise self recognizes the truth that things have a life cycle of their own, separate from your own wants. As you learn to accept this truth, your patience grows. To build patience, you must learn to recognize impatience and the urge to rush through one moment to get to the next.
Yeah, I was pretty convicted by that as I walked through it again the day after the incident. All I can do now is acknowledge it, and move on.
Patience has always been an issue for me. I think largely because of its connection to control. I can't control when things are different than I want them to be, or than they actually are, and I want to!
So, that stuff happened. We watched the dog, I did alright for most of the time, then lost my sh*t. Life goes on. I'm trying to learn, and not be too hard on myself. I hope the dog forgives me.
***
Proverbs 14:29
"Whoever is patient has great understanding,
but one who is quick-tempered displays folly."
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