Live in the Present Moment

And, be curious about the world around you

“You are only here now; you’re only alive in this moment.” ~ Jon Kabat-Zinn

Humans have a tendency to spend a lot of time thinking about the past or worrying about the future. Dogs live in the present moment. We’re great at engaging with the world around us, and giving our full attention to what is happening right here, right now.

We each have something to say about this topic, but we’ll let Ella start as usual…

Ella

Whenever I got into the trash and emptied it all over the floor, I wasn’t worried about the consequences, I was focused on seeing what I could find. Usually there wasn’t that much of interest, but I went through every bit of it to pull out any tasty morsels that were hiding in there. I particularly liked used tissues, which mom thought was gross, but I found delicious. Mom would get pretty mad at me when she got home from work and found garbage all over the place. I knew she wasn’t going to like it, so I would stand at the lowest level of our tri-level house and grin at her (showing as much teeth as I could), begging for forgiveness. She would be mad for a few minutes while she cleaned up the mess, but she always forgave me. Hiding the trash bin underneath the cabinet in the kitchen wasn’t enough to keep me out of it, so eventually she started storing the bin in the garage. That was the end of my daily treasure hunt. I always took any chance I could get when we went somewhere that the trash bin was in an area I could access.

On walks and hikes, I was fully engaged in the world around me – always on the lookout for animals, birds, interesting scents, discarded food, or people who might want to say hello to me. I would often stop to investigate further if something caught my attention. I always stopped to take in the views, especially in my favorite spots, like my vista on Mt. Sanitas that I told you about, or when we travelled to new places. I think one of my favorite views was when we drove Going to the Sun road in Glacier National Park in Montana. Dad put my window down so that I could look out at the amazing views while we were driving. They call Montana ‘Big Sky Country’ for a reason. The views are incredible, and worth the time to pause and take in, rather than rushing on by.

When mom started practicing yoga, she used meditation to get more present. She would sit on her meditation pillow with our cat, Mateo, in her lap, close her eyes and be silent for ten to twenty minutes. She got into the habit of doing this regularly, and it seemed to help her. She slowed down, was more relaxed, and didn’t let work get her as upset. That benefited all of us. When she finally decided to leave her corporate job in 2018 to focus solely on running her own business, she had a lot more time to go on long walks with me. We even started going on hikes during the week.

Being more present meant that mom was also paying more attention to what was going on with her body. It was about time, because she hadn’t done a good job of that before. If it wasn’t for her friend who was with her the day that she had a heart attack while on a bike ride, mom wouldn’t have gone to the hospital, and I would have been left all alone. The doctor told her that she wouldn’t have survived if she hadn’t gone to the hospital that night. I was really worried when she unexpectedly didn’t come home for three days, and I was left in the care of one of her friends. Finally, on the fourth day, her friend took me to the hospital where I could visit with her. Mom seemed ok by then, and boy was I glad! We had so much more adventuring to do together!

Mala and Tessie

As Gene Baur put it in his book Farm Sanctuary, animals are “always engaged in the world around them…they are connected to the physical world in a way that humans seem to have lost…animals show us the enjoyment of simple pleasures and of being in the moment.” We are living proof of that. We love engaging with the physical world, especially the natural world – snow in particular.

When we go on hikes and trail runs, we are constantly sniffing out anything of interest and taking the time to investigate further when something gets our attention. It can drive our parents crazy at times, because it means we stop a lot along the way, but it’s good for them to slow down. We’re always on the lookout for critters. I learned a long time ago not to chase deer, but to simply admire them from a distance. Tessie, on the other hand, will chase just about anything so she needs to be kept on a leash most of the time.

Just yesterday, we took an amazing hike in the snow. There was enough snow that we could push our noses through it, roll around in it, and even slide downhill on our sides in some areas. It was pretty chilly out, so we had to wear our jackets, and I wore my booties to keep snowballs from building up on my feet. We had a blast. In fact, these couple of weeks of what our parents call the “holidays” have been fabulous – we’ve hiked nearly every day, and have enjoyed every minute of living in the moment with our parents. It was nice that they were able to work less and spend more time in nature with us. We’re certain it was good for their mental and physical health to slow down and take it all in.