Every time my dog poops she takes a victory lap around the yard.
She celebrates her small victories.
You should, too.
My dog plays with her toys until she gets bored.
And then she could care less about them.
It’s only when I take one of them away that she suddenly cares again.
And cares a whole lot.
We are so much the same.
We don’t really care about what we have until it’s gone.
If only we could enjoy what we have like it was already taken, maybe we wouldn’t have to get things taken before we could truly enjoy.
My dog will BARK and YELL and RAGE and fearlessly advance towards even the most vicious looking dogs.
But, pops, cracks, and whizzes from the fridge?
Terrified. Whimpers. Needs to be held.
These noises, of course, don’t scare us because we understand them.
But, failure, aloneness, suffering?
Leaves most of us terrified, whimpering, and feeling like we need to be held.
Maybe it’s the case that these things aren’t inherently scary, but we’re just scared of them because we don’t fully understand them.
Maybe if we spent more time learning how to fail forward, enjoy aloneness, and channel our suffering—we wouldn’t be so scared?
Things become less scary once we understand them.
This post became the introduction for: 13 Rousing Delia Owens Quotes from Where The Crawdads Sing on Abandonment, Love, and Self-Reliance