Tag: relax

When We Don’t Do the Good We Want

/ colleen arnold / 6 Comments

I carted my sweet dog, Buddy, to the veterinarian last week for a checkup. He hates the car, and usually whimpers before I even turn the key to start the engine, but that day he was oddly happy. He let the breeze blow across his face and sniffed happily at all the scents we passed. As soon as we got into the office, though, the whining started as if he had been saving it up. It got louder and louder until it became a long, drawn-out, pitiful howl. And it kept going, and going and going…

Other animals looked at him with alarm and concern. Other pet parents stepped back, envisioning with the scene they knew could materialize at any minute. He forcefully resisted the ten steps to the exam room with every bit of his 35 dense pounds. He refused to allow himself to be lifted onto the exam table, and he nipped at the vet’s hand as she reached out to pet him. By that point the howling had ceased and been replaced by the most threatening snarl a dachshund’s cute face could muster. Continue reading →

Blessing or Bummer?

/ colleen arnold / 2 Comments

Do you know people who are always happy? People who seem to flow along unaffected by the trials that must surely be swirling around them? I think I know how they do it. Instead of going through the day counting all the bummers, they choose to see the blessings instead. Recently I had an experience that reminded me  its possible to be content even when your circumstances encourage otherwise.

Years ago, we planted a small copse of pine trees in the U-shaped center of our driveway. We nursed and mulched those baby trees as they grew up right alongside our daughters. Over the years they hosted birds’ nests, ant farms, totem pole faces, scavenger hunts, and came to be called the “tree garden.”

Bummer: I was shocked one morning this spring when I came out the front door to discover that a destructive night wind  felled one of the larger pines. The fragrant giant stretched across my driveway, well into the neighbor’s yard, while shards of the broken stump reached up like fingers from the mulch. The sight was heartbreaking.
Blessing: Despite the length and width of that huge tree, it didn’t hit my car or my house. It landed within a foot of my deck and inches from my car, safely between the two, and nowhere near the front porch of the neighbor’s house toward which it was pointed. Continue reading →

There is No Perfect, But There Can Still be Joy

/ colleen arnold / 2 Comments

You know those incredible moments that crystalize into perfect memories you treasure forever? The ones that make you wish time could stand still and life would never change?

It was a New Year’s Eve long ago. My newborn baby, only three days old, slept peacefully in my arms. My plump, comfy chair was pulled against the French doors leading out to the deck. I could feel the cold draft and my fluffy blanket was wrapped snuggly around us. My toddler sat on the floor cuddling the dog, while her older sister hummed Christmas carols beside us.

Neil’s annual fireworks display was toned down that year, because I didn’t want to take the baby outside. Instead of the street, the fireworks were lined in a row of about twenty on the deck railing. As he hopped gleefully down the row, lighting each one as he went, he dipped and weaved to avoid the sparks and ashes. Then he retraced his steps, knocking the spent ones off the deck, lining up a new row and repeating the whole process. “Pop, pop, pop,” two-year-old Jackie exclaimed cheerfully over and over again, as we watched through the glass doors. Gina oohed and awed with each new display, and my sweet babe slept through it all. Continue reading →