Throwing Sticks...

Once upon a time…I was visiting a friend’s lake house…sitting on the deck in the sunshine was the perfect place for writing…and I was enjoying the solitude…

Until…

I heard splashing and barking coming from the neighbor’s pier…it was Annie…their black lab…and she was having a grand ole time…swimming in and out from under the pier…

Without really meaning to…I stopped my work and started watching…Annie swam a bit…then walked on shore…grabbed a stick…and headed down the pier…

She stopped at the end of the pier and chose just the right spot…then threw the stick into the water…after watching it float for a bit…she jumped in after it…then…she caught it…let it go…and caught it again…she swam it under the pier…and back out again…then headed for shore…

And then…she did it all again…and again…and again…

Sometime during all of the stick throwing and fetching…Bertha showed up…we’d been talking about what it means to feel good earlier…and she said that if I really wanting to know what it meant…I had to look no further…because…Annie sure knew how to feel good…of course she expounded on that at bit…

Really feeling good is when you don’t need anyone or anything else to be happy…when you can throw your own stick…just because it feels good to swim with it…now…that’s feeling good!

It’s been a few years…since that day at the lake…but…ever since then…whenever I start to whine…about being bored…or unhappy…Bertha just hands me a stick…and tells me to go throw it…

Sometimes…I throw it at her…and she’s right…it really does feel good…

Jane