Saturday, December 30, 2017

2017 I Wish Thee Well, But Now It's Time to Say Goodbye

2017 has mostly sucked.  It started off kind of OK, then went downhill fast.  There were some good bits like getting to judge agility in Singapore, getting my eyes done and not having to wear glasses anymore was pretty awesome and having Jan Egil Eide here to learn about better agility course design.  But overall I'll truly be glad to see the back of it.  I still find it hard to believe that we lost Riot this year.  Every part of this house was infused with his presence and even three months on the house feels empty.  We found a rose for him and planted it right next to where we walk the dogs.  It feels better to have something for him that I get to see everyday.  The rose is called “Remember Me”.


I did learn a lot in 2017.  I learned that my dogs are my teachers, not the other way around.  That I want my dogs to know that they have choices. If they don’t want to tug or play with me then that’s OK.  If they don’t want to do agility then that’s OK too.  If they feel stressed and uncomfortable then I’m going to give them as much time as they need to feel better about things.  If they don’t feel OK then they don’t have to do anything at all.  I don’t think that Veto and I have ever had a bad relationship, I just know that now it is much better.  I see it when we are playing together and I see it when we are just hanging out.  So maybe 2017 wasn't so bad.     
Christmas 2017
I have no idea what 2018 will bring.  But I have some new words that I will take with my as I start my 2018 journey.  Fall down, get up, don't quit, resiliency, bounce back, stay on course, feel no fear, hold the power, make a choice, how your gonna be, how your gonna do it, if you do what is easy your life will be hard, if you do what is hard your life will be easy.  I can do this.