At 11 o’clock last Saturday night, nearing the climax of a wonderful movie called *Young Woman and the Sea*, someone opened the sliding door to let Beatrice outside. I’m not sure why that particular moment was chosen. Our Aussiedoodle can be demanding, but I was fully locked in on whether Trudy Ederle was going to make it to the other side of the English Channel. Within a few short minutes, our dog was requesting to be let back into the house. Again, someone opened the door, and she came in. She stopped, shook her face and coat violently, and stared at us like her best friend had just betrayed her.
Then something like ten trillion stink bombs detonated at once in our family room. Our sinuses melted. We gasped, hoping for air but asphyxiating from the poison gas. We helplessly (hopelessly) stared at each other and wondered if there was any hope amidst the airborne toxic event.
I paused the movie, sat up on the couch, and looked at my dog’s wet, skunk-sprayed face. She looked back at me and then at the rest of the family, hoping we had a plan for her. I reasoned that it would not be wise to let her back out through the sliding door, so I calmly walked past her and whispered for her to follow me. She did as I commanded. Add dog whisperer to my résumé.
I let her out the front door and came back in so we could war game as a family. Caroline would locate dog shampoo. I would start washing her outside. Jenny would go to the store for skunk odor remover. Will would play video games downstairs.
Note: When Jenny went to the store, she told the worker she was looking for skunk odor remover. They said, “We know. You smell horrid!”
We executed the plan flawlessly. Bea got four frigid baths. The family room was detoxed. We all got showers, and we agreed we did the best we could do for one night.
I spend most of these posts telling you the things I do wrong and how I have learned from my mistakes. I want to take this opportunity to celebrate a step forward, or a growth milestone. When we woke up the next morning, Jenny said to me, “I was really surprised at how you handled that.” I didn’t need to inquire; I knew exactly what she meant.
I didn’t instantly react in frustration or anger. I was calm and peaceful. I thought about the smoke detector, my object lesson, and smiled. I took a moment to savor how life could be if I didn’t impulsively react to undesirable or less-than-optimal situations. Even more, I internally cheered for being the kind of person in the moment that I want to be all the time.
I told my friend this story recently, and he said, “The key was that you had the self-awareness at one point to want to be different.” I agreed but added that there are a lot of people who know they want to change but never actually change. “In addition to self-awareness, I think it must, absolutely must, be accompanied by intentionality,” I said.
So that is what I am celebrating today: self-awareness and intentionality.
Without having the self-awareness that my first impulse is to be quickly angered in situations and without the intentionality to do the hard work of becoming a different person, I may have remained The Dog Shouter rather than The Dog Whisperer.
That is worth a celebration.
Question
What are some areas in my life where I recognize the need for change, and how can I intentionally work towards becoming the person I aspire to be?
Peace,
Brandon