Blog #540: When Dogs Turn Green

Sometimes…
the bottom of the bag falls out.

Sometimes…
the pasta plate tips upside down.

Sometimes…
they both happen in the same week.

This week…
I had a run-in with them both.

But…

Multiple egg cartons falling on a parking lot’s pavement doesn’t match up with the comedy/drama/action/horror of a GIANT plate of GREEN pasta tipping over in your lap.
______

It was pesto night.

I took the GIANT plate of GREEN noodles to the couch.

The movie was already in the DVR and ready to go.
A peaceful mood candle was lit on the coffee table.

And THEN…

I lost my handle…and my plate went upside down.
The GIANT plate of GREEN (oily) noodles went everywhere.

On my clothes.
On the tan couch.
On the rug.

On the couch pillows.
On the hardwood floor.
On the coffee table.

Green, oily, messy, slippery noodles.
Equally dispersed.
Everywhere.

I had a few moments of unprintable self-talk.
______

It was a massive clean-up effort.

45 minutes to clean?
That would be a shy estimate.

But finally…

Sweating from the combined efforts of exertion and anger…
I happily thought I’d finished the cleaning job.

Until…

Amicus appeared in the doorway.

My poor little dog had noodles on his back and on the top of his head.
The back of his white fur coat was pesto-colored green.

As he looked at me…

His ears were dejectedly laid down on the back of his head as far as I’d ever seen them. His eyes were massively doggy-sad.

He was 100% not into his new look…even if food was involved.

It was obvious the “bottom of the bag” had fallen out of his day.

______

It happens.

Sometimes…the pasta plate tips over.
Sometimes…the bottom of the bag falls out.
Sometimes…the bottom of a day falls out, too.

BUT…

No matter how serious the bottom of the break is…or how bad the news, the moment or the day…we choose how we’ll respond.

In attitude and action…we choose our NEXT.

And even if we feel we’re falling backwards a million miles an hour…

NEXT is the moment we’re offered a chance to regain composure, stop the fall, and choose how a story-line might play out.

NEXT has the power to change our lives.
______

At some point in time for all of us…

Life’s plate drops and the bag’s bottom inevitably falls out. And it’s there…at those points… that you and I have an option of choosing whether we own our NEXT or whether “next” owns us.

NEXT.

Let’s own ours.