October 2019 – Kevin the Lemon

October 30, 2019October 30, 2019

Mombie

A behavior happens a couple of times and you go about with life, never even noticing that you’ve done it. Then the behavior happens a few more times and still it goes unnoticed. Life is funny that way. The small, mundane, unimportant things get compartmentalized in this automatic part of the brain, and we don’t ever really have to or need to pay attention to it happening, think using turn signals in the car, or flushing the toilet after you go. The thing is, these unimportant, mundane, small things can become a norm, which is then considered a habit. Google defines a habit as a settled or regular tendency or practice, especially one that is hard to give up.

Science has proven that on average new behaviors take approximately sixty-six days to become automatic. A habit, can however, form in as little as eighteen days. Let’s take a look at the flip side of this science. It can also take as many as 254 days for a new habit to form. This means it can take that amount of time to break or reverse a habit.

I am potty trained and crate trained. We have a very stringent nighttime routine. Mom complains about being a super light sleeper, she hears everything. When Mom doesn’t get sleep she turns into a “mombie” and she will take down anything or anyone that crosses her path. One night Dad let us out before bed, which is normal. I discovered that my bunny neighbor left gifties, and right then was to very best time to forage for them, completely dismissing the fact that I was going to be locked up in bed for the next 8 hours. That night there was a problem. I had to go, really go! I barked to let Mom know I couldn’t hold it anymore. She woke up, came into our room, said some bad words, told me “no barking”, and then let me out. I did my business, then proceeded (unbeknownst to Mom) to find more of the tasty morsels the bunny left behind for me. She called me back in, “come Kevin… cookies…”. I ran back to the door, she grabbed a few cookies, gave me one, and put me back into my kennel with the remaining cookies.

Well, between late night bunny nuggets and midnight snacks I had to figuratively “let the dogs out”. I barked to let Mom know that she literally needed to let the dogs out. She repeated the process, cuss, out, poop, cookies, kennel, cookies, “NO BARKING”.

I tried this new behavior again the next night, and the next night, and the next. Mom came in every time. She wasn’t happy about it – remember that “mombie” I mentioned?!? I overheard her say that she couldn’t just let me bark, I would end up waking up Boy. It’s true, if she doesn’t answer my barking, I will bark more, and louder. I formed a new, bad habit, or I was certainly in the process of starting one. Mom is in the process of trying to break this newly formed habit. When Boy goes to his dad’s house, she lets me bark. She does not respond, which is unimaginable. Her only response these days is a booming voice from her room, “enough”,” no barking”.

My point… habits form before you even realize they are happening. They can be tough to break. Pay attention to your little, unimportant, and mundane, behaviors, so they don’t get stored in the automatic section of the brain. BE AWARE of the things you are doing. Live all parts of your life with blatant awareness and intention.

October 16, 2019October 16, 2019

Poster Child of A Beautiful Day

Fall is here, finally. It has been a wickedly hot summer. Please don’t misunderstand, I completely enjoy basking in the warm summer air on the hot patio stones. I however, have never had the luxury of experiencing anything other than spring and summer. But today… Mom said it was a PERFECT fall day. It’s sunny, about 70 degrees, the wind is blowing, and absolutely no humidity to speak of. It really is the poster child of a beautiful day.

Mom and Dad were supposed to be gone all day, but Boy’s school called and Mom had to pick him up very early. When she got home, she opened all the windows, opened the door, and told us to “get out”. It felt beyond delightful, lying outside in the cool grass with the leaves whirling past me and the tree limbs swaying gently in the breeze. There’s just so much to look at when it is all continually moving.

Fall is a new experience for me. I felt the need to soak in and relish in every refreshing moment of this new experience. I needed to genuinely enjoy the moment I was in. It was vital to take in and appreciate how every tiny little piece of the universe came together perfectly, to create, not just a magical moment, but a joy filled day.

This is my way of telling you, to take notice. Remember to enjoy where you are in a moment. Sometimes, we can be too focused on the wrong parts, or too focused overall, or even too busy. Sometimes these moments can be hard to find and easily missed. Take a pause each day and take note. Find something that brought you joy. It could be an interaction, a gift, a smile, getting a job done, the weather, the whole stinking day. Don’t let those little moments or days of joy pass you by. These are the things worth spotlighting.

October 6, 2019October 6, 2019

Faster Than A Ferrari in A F1 Street Race

My mom loves to take pictures. She isn’t a professional, but she will pull out the camera, play with some buttons, choose a funny nose to put on the end of it, then put herself in all sorts of positions to get ” the perfect picture”.

She takes pictures of all sorts of things. Nature is her favorite. Family is a close second. She struggles with nature photos because, if she leaves for a walk, we will all sit in the window or at the door and cry. She says she is NOT carrying her camera bag while hauling three dogs on a walk through the woods. As far as family photos go, lets be honest, getting three dogs, a cat, and some humans to sit nicely for any sort of photo is impossible. So, when Mom takes family photos, they usually just include one or two of us, and they are generally candid shots, moments of us, being us.

On a beautiful fall day, it was much nicer to be outside than it was inside. I chose to stay out back. I wanted to feel my first fall in all its glory. I like hot summer days, laying on the patio, but fall. I didn’t know fall. Fall came in overnight and showed just what it was made of. The temperature went from 90 to 65. I needed to enjoy all the time outside that I could. How long does this fall thing last anyway? Mom happened to be home for the majority of the day. So she decided since I didn’t want to come in, and she didn’t want to be in either, she would grab her camera and start taking some photos that friends had been asking her for. Apparently, I have fans!

Mom let Boy take some pictures first. He likes to play photographer, with us as his muses. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree does it? After Boy finished up, she took the camera and lay on the patio across from where I was laying. I was busy eating the ants out of the cracks in the stones. I don’t have time to look at cameras when there are a plethora of ants to be destroyed.

Let me pause for a second. Did I ever tell you that food is my favorite? Did I ever tell you that if you just say the word “cookie” it will light a fire in my behind, and I will be by your side faster than a Ferrari in a F1 street race. And my final side bar; bugs are food too.

Okay, back to the story. I was was laying on the patio, Mom laying in front of me. She kept saying all the names “Schmoo, Lemmies, Lemmer Loo Loo, Kevin, Smootie Pootie”. I was busy, remember, ants, ants everywhere. I didn’t have time to take a break, I was breaking up an army. But then, then Mom got tricky. “I have cookies”, she said. That got my attention. Ants are good, but cookies are better. I looked at her, she had her fingers pinched together at the top of the camera, click. click. click click. She got her pictures. I did not get a cookie. She wasn’t being honest. She tricked me. She used my weakness against me.

Well guess what. I took note that she never got up. She just stayed put. I wasn’t falling for that twice. If you are going to try to trick me, you better make it more convincing the second time around. She and that camera didn’t let up though. “Cookie! Lems I have cookies for you”. She is a lying, liar who lies, and I am not falling for it. I kept hearing the camera click, but I didn’t look at her. I avoided eye contact, made funny faces, and continued to fight off the invading army. I could actually eat the ants, she can save her fake cookies for someone else. She may have gotten a picture, but it wasn’t going to come easily. She was going to have to work for it.

Don’t fall for the same mistakes twice. That is your lesson. We are all going to be tricked or manipulated into something, at some point. That is reality, but you don’t need to let it continue to happen. You get to stand up for yourself and say “NO!”. It is self care to not let yourself be tricked. It is standing up for you. Stand up for yourself when you need to and maybe enjoy a special snack while you’re at it!