Saturday, September 20, 2008-THE PERSON MY DOG THINKS I AM

"THE PERSON MY DOG
THINKS I AM"

I attended an Alanon meditation meeting yesterday. Five minutes were spent in silence after reading a chosen passage from the Alanon Family Group publication "Having Had a Spiritual Awakening".

This is an excerpt from that reading:

"....prayer quoted from the window of a local pet shop: "Dear God, please help me be the person my dog thinks I am." This has been my prayer for the day and it has kept me smiling." "....."This joking prayer has helped me take myself less seriously..."

Some of my thoughts during the five minutes of silence:
1. Am I too serious?
2. How "light" or how "heavy" am I?
3. Do I laugh enough?
4. When I had a dog, my dog was always totally accepting, trusting, and affectionate no matter how I was feeling or acting.
5. How can I be less serious with more laughter and lightness?
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During the discussion that followed, I thought about actions I might take to become a little less serious, laugh more, and be a little lighter.
1. I did affirmations for years and they worked so well I stopped them. Time to reinstate the practice.
2. I exercised regularly for a year and decided to change my exercise program, stopped the one I was doing, have not begun a new program yet. So... I need to get with the program and get back to regular exercise. I believe in the power of
endorphins to lift me up.
3. Laugh - watch funny shows or movies, read funny books or cartoons, talk with funny people who make me laugh
4. Stop procrastinating and get on with God's plan for me. I am applying to be a volunteer pastoral care assistant at our local hospital. I need to finish reading a book and write a two page paper as my next step.
I need to (four letter word) DOIT!
5. Stop comparing myself to others and falling short in the comparison. That's old behavior that I choose not to participate in anymore, but I tend to forget over and over. Time to get back to the right habits.
6. I need to visualize a bubble of light around me and let it do a little floating.

BTW - IT WAS A TERRIFIC MEETING AND.............................
IT WILL CONTINUE TO BE TERRIFIC IF I FOLLOW MY OWN RECOMMENDATIONS