Sitting here with this little creature in my lap, I am struck by the wisdom that can be gained from the Five Rules of a Dog’s Life.
Dear Colleagues:
Many of you know that my husband and I recently adopted a wee dog from Kuwait. He goes by the name of Mr. Peepers. Sitting here with this little creature in my lap, I am struck by the wisdom that can be gained from the Five Rules of a Dog’s Life.
1. Embrace a new life.
Mr. Peepers spent two days in a crate to make the long journey from Kuwait, and we know not what he endured before that. When he arrived, he had never seen grass or rain. He had never climbed a flight of stairs. He had never walked on a leash. Every word was in a language he did not understand.
We all are likewise in a strange place. It’s becoming more apparent that we will never entirely go back to the way we used to do things. For better or worse, we are dumped out of our crates into the post-COVID-19 world. Suddenly, we all have to learn new ways of doing our work with unfamiliar tools. We have to learn to teach the hands-on skills of our practice profession without being physically present. We have had to turn around an entire curriculum in a week. And in our personal lives, we have had to mask up to buy groceries. We have had to social distance, home school, or track a rolling pandemic.
Like Mr. Peepers, we figure things out by trying them. We take each step forward, and we are not afraid to fail. We probably won’t get things exactly right on the first try, but we’ll get closer, day by day.
2. Keep what you can of the familiar.
Mr. Peepers had two toys in his crate: a tennis ball and a rope chew. We washed them carefully and gave them back to him. He has other toys now, but now and then he goes back to his early possessions. You can see a little spark of recognition in his face.
We all need to keep track of our own treasures during this time of so much loss. What can we keep that we had before this storm? What will remain of our past life? We have to seek the things in our work and homes that gave us joy before, and protect them. We will have plenty of new toys in the days ahead. But once in a while, let’s go old-school. Let’s tell an old story to our students. Let’s open a comfy old book and turn the real pages one by one.
3. Rewards are important.
Mr. Peepers knows where the treats are. He believes he deserves them always. And he does.
This pandemic has induced a kind of hunger of the soul. We crave to be seen, recognized, touched. We are looking everywhere for the treats, because we know we deserve them in the midst of this hard time. And we do.
Finding our rewards is not as easy as opening a box of dog cookies though. It takes some searching of our inner selves to figure out the roots of our individual happiness. Rewards may need to shift and change because our lives are restricted in many ways. What makes us smile here and now? Is it the time won back from the previous work commute? Is it baking bread? Digging in the dirt? Spending time with the kids? The blackboard links that actually work? The students who send an appreciative message? Sniff around and don’t give up until you discover the treats.
And then, remember the reward of sharing treats. Let’s feed the hungry souls of our families and colleagues with our expressed gratitude.
4. Find your safe and quiet place and go there when you need to.
I think that the edges and boundaries of our work have become porous, leaking over into time that was once ours. Technology makes us endlessly available. Sometimes the relentless intrusion is too much. We all need to disengage periodically, slow the pace, shorten the list. Let us all give ourselves permission to break away and protect our sacred time. Find a little corner of peace. Curl up there.
5. Take a walk. Do it regularly whether you think you need to or not.
Push back from the computer, close the laptop, put away the phone. Stop reading this article and go outside. Look at the sky. Listen to the birds. Breathe the summer air. Be your own Mr. Peepers.
(Image by Darren Oliver, Creative Commons license)
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