Posted on

The Good, The Bad, or The Ugly

For Mother’s Day Boy bought Mom a stunning plant. She loved it. She took it out of the orange, plastic pot it came in, and put it into a fancier pot to place on the back patio. The plant sits by the back door, on the step, up against the house. A lovely addition to a small bare corner. This plant is chock-full of little buds that eventually display large, orange, hibiscus flowers. Mom says, the unfortunate part about this plant is that the flowers only bloom for a day, leaving shriveled up pods of former hibiscus flowers hanging from the stems.
I say, HOW FORTUNATE!!! There are shriveled up pods of former hibiscus flowers hanging from stems! When the spirit moves me or when I am feeling bored, I like to snatch those shriveled up pods right off the plant. Each pod gives approximately fifteen minutes of mindless joy and pleasure.
Can you see where I am headed with this?!?
Everything in life is determined by your frame of mind. While Mom looks at the plant and takes note of the dead and ugly parts, I see a fun, new, tasty moment of happiness. Mom and I see things differently. That’s OK. But, if you continue to look at the things in your life less than savory and undesirable than the more things will look unsavory and undesirable. If you look at your life, the things you have, and the things you’re going through as though they have flavor and zest (even the ugly, unwanted parts), everything will start to seem a little more palatable and flavorful. Continue this, and your life, and all that is in it will be worth savoring and enjoying. Everyone will want a piece of it because it’s just so satisfying!
It’s all in the way your perceive it, life, materials within your life, moments, situations, all of it. It, much like the hibiscus flowers can be full of fun and flavor, or it can be dead and ugly. It’s up to you to choose!!!

Posted on

Mint and Mushrooms

My backyard is AWESOME!!! When you walk out of the back door, you step down onto a large natural stone patio. The crevices of the patio have soft, lush moss growing between each stone. In addition to this moss, there is mint. Beautiful, green, fragrant, accidental (I’ll get to this in a moment), mint plants. Mint not only smells good, it tastes amazing!
Did you know, mint grows like wildfire???
Mom didn’t know either when she planted her adult beverage infusion in large pots around the patio, three years ago.
My favorite morning routine involves having a nice bowl of food, laying next to Scrappy while he finishes his breakfast (he never leaves me any, but I do get to lick the empty bowl), then returning outside to do what Mom calls “the weeding”. I will lie outside on those hot stones for hours, just to make sure every last mint weed has been removed from the crevices of the patio, and properly disposed of into my belly. Occasionally, I will also pick at the moss and whatever other little weeds might be in the mix if I get bored enough, but none of that compares to mint! My Gigi (that’s the older version of Mom) likes to say it’s good for my belly. I happen to agree with her.
At the end of our patio there is a low wall, Lola likes to climb up when I won’t leave her alone. Lola thinks it’s the perfect height for her and Mom to get in good snuggles early in the morning. The reality is, it’s just too early to be picked on and it’s an easy escape. Behind this wall are small, dense, yellow bushes lined all the way around the border. I have employed myself to make sure these bushes don’t get too big, or too dense. I like to chew them down to keep them well maintained. These same bushes also feel really good in your fur if you run close enough and fast enough along them.
Under the well maintained, yellow bushes is mulch. Fresh, black mulch that was put down one month before I got to call this place home. Mom said had I come sooner, she would have held off on the mulch this year. I go outside everyday and I get my yellow bush brushing, then I roll around in mulch. Mom says I am filthy when I am finished. She says the yellow leaves and the black mulch stick to my fur like glue. This usually results in a vigorous fluffing before I am allowed to come back inside. Pretty annoying if you ask me, I work really hard on this look.
But here’s the kicker, all of this isn’t even the best part. The best part is the little mushrooms that pop up in the in the mulch every single night. By morning these little suckers are perfect. There are so many mom can’t squash them all before I can get to at least a paw-ful. I race outside to do my business in the morning and while I am waiting for Scrappy and Lola, Mom and I are in a race to can see who can get the most mushrooms first. She doesn’t even eat them; she stomps them. What a waste of perfectly good, melt in your mouth mushrooms. Mushrooms that I am willing to consume.
I keep trying to tell Mom. You’ve got to enjoy the little things. The things that make you happy. Even if those things don’t make anyone else happy. Even if they get upset about it. It’s yours, and you get to have that thing, no matter how big or little, that makes you feel happy. The things that make your heart want to break out in song and dance. For me, those things are mint and mushrooms. For you it might look different – OK, it definitely looks different. But that, my friend, is the point! You get to have your happy too!