All Roads are Bumpy

Horses finally grazing in the paddocks

Life lately as been, well, life-ing. It’s finally a “normal” Monday for the first time in two weeks. Not that it has been bad, but it’s been busy. And that’s been challenging.

There’s been fence to put up, my parents came to town, and we took a quick getaway to the beach. So much packed into such a short amount of time, that a lot of other things have had to slide. The horses haven’t been worked in about 2 weeks between the weather and the schedule, and the cats are irritated that they haven’t gotten their usual snuggle time. Specter has been reminding me that I haven’t been taking care of myself as well as I could (nothing like your pet to insult your efforts when you thought you were at least doing ok at something).

Here’s the deal. There will always be bumpy roads. I don’t know of a time in my life where I didn’t think I was in the middle of a bumpy road. Sometimes I look back and realize things weren’t as bumpy as I though then, but the perspective in the moment is always that things are kind of rough.

When you know that, and acknowledge it, you can begin to make different choices in how you navigate the bumpy roads. If you had a car, you’d slow down speed, get the shocks checked, watch for the pot holes and attempt to drive around them, slow down even more when you couldn’t, and maybe beef up the suspension if you could. You’d do all the things to help make navigating the bumpy road a little easier on the whole.

Do we put that into practice when life’s roads get bumpy?

One of the things I’ve noticed is that often our pets are simply trying to get our attention to help us navigate those bumps with more ease. They are asking us to slow down. To be present. They want us to take a larger view of the situation and see where we might be able to tend to our life-vehicle (aka bodies) and give ourselves a little more resources to make the bumpy road not as big of a deal.

If you’re struggling in life, check in with your pet and see what wisdom they might have for you. Their “outside” perspective, since they aren’t human, can often give us a fresh view and ideas to work from.

Here’s the best news - pets LOVE it when we check in with them this way. They want to help us. They want to make our lives easier, more joyful, and fun. But until we stop and ask the question, the information won’t be available to us.

So take a break from the bumpy road for a hot second. Find the joy in the view around you, and ask your pet what ideas they have to help smooth out the road a little bit.