I’m dating myself to say that I recalled with nostalgia this morning Tony the Tiger and his endorsement of Sugar Frosted Flakes — “They’re GRRRRRREAT!!!” (They’ve dropped “sugar” from the name — no longer PC).
I thought of Tony this morning as I was swimming with the Masters team to which I belong. We work out three mornings a week from 5:30-7 a.m. It has been a month since I joined my teammates for a workout thanks to lots of drama and family health issues throughout most of 2010. But this morning — my 53rd birthday — my gift to myself was a start to the day that was GRRRRREAT!!!
When you are in the middle of a 200-yard pulling drill, you have time to reflect, and my thoughts this morning drifted to the fact that throughout all the painful events of 2010, there remained one constant. That constant was the fact that pets live so absolutely, positively in the moment. I witness example after example of this during every single day I am alive and share my time with my animals.
In January when my mother had her near-death experience — the result of a perfect storm of advanced ovarian cancer, a suppressed immune system, and chemotherapy side-effects — and made the difficult choice to withdraw from treatment, Tommy, my Cavalier King Charles Spaniel told me that every one of his days was GRRRRREAT!!! What an inspiration he was. During my mother’s final 12 days in hospital-based hospice, my dogs made a rotation of visits to her bedside where I spent nearly every minute. They reminded my dying mother, our extended family, and all the gentle spirits on the hospice ward who cared for her that every one of their days was GRRRRRREAT!!!
My 90 year-old mother-in-law, visiting us from Ohio in August, suddenly fell ill and required a pace-maker without which she would have succumbed to heart failure. We were grateful to be able to have her with us (instead of in a nursing home) during her healing, rehabilitation, and return to independent living. During our long days at work in our practice, the cats rotated their occupation of her lap so that they could remind her constantly that every one of their days is GRRRREAT!!!
And while I advocated for my father during the time leading up to and immediately following a spectacular cervical spine surgery that involved removing the bone from the back of his neck at 4 cervical levels (screws, rods, fusion…), I could count on my lovely Golden Retriever, Farrah, to remind me at the end of my worry-filled and stressful days that every one of her days is GRRRREAT!!!
So as I look forward from this 53rd birthday, my ongoing gift to myself is the commitment to take to heart the example my pets give me each and every day. Even though it is exceptionally easy to get caught up in the pain, distress, and drama the swirl about us, my commitment to myself is to remind myself that life is a gift, and that I too have the opportunity to make each and every day GRRRREAT!!! I’m surrounded by great teachers!
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