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!
