Day 1040

Ranger was my buddy at Norbella today! His wagging tail and sweet personality brought many smiles! He is pretty adorable!

As one resident was petting him, she looked at me and said, “You and I are kindred spirits.” I smiled and nodded in slightly confused agreement. She continued…”Much like me, you rely on your own sensibility instead of letting other people push you in the wrong way. You seem to have made yourself into the person you were meant to be, without trying to be like anyone else!” I was surprised by this explanation! Pausing to take in her response, I finally thanked her for the compliment. Her reply…”Not a compliment, just a fact.” I was humbled and bemused.

Although my goal has always been to simply “be me,” like most people, I have been swayed by others' opinions and beliefs. Peer pressure, from childhood through early adulthood, certainly was an outside agent to who I was becoming, but others’ opinions took on a new light as I walked through life. Shedding some of the traits that I had accumulated along the way, I did begin to become more of my true self.

The older we become, the truer our spirits and core morph into our true self. There have always been people who influence our lives in negative and positive ways. As the years pass, we tend to simply smile at others’ questionable perceptions and embrace those that help us to become better, wiser and kinder.

Dogs are simply who they were born to be… never questioning their journey. There is no peer pressure or need to pay attention to someone’s opinion along the way. They are who they are. That is a lesson I wish I had learned years ago. Embracing the truth that there is only ONE OF US on this planet frees us to honor our individuality and celebrate who we were meant to be!