We have alot to learn from our dogs.

There is alot we can learn from our dogs. They really don't want much. If you feed, water, and bathe them, they really take care of the rest on their own--except for one thing--they need us to love them. Rewind to about two nights ago. I'm trying to study for a midterm and Minnie is about to drive me crazy. She jumps on the bed; I put her on the floor. She jumps again; I put her down again. I'm getting pretty aggravated over the whole ordeal because all I want to do is study, and I feel like she should understand that. We go back and forth for nearly an hour until I realize that there can't be much harm in what she is doing. When I finally give in and let her stay on the bed, she immediately curls up right on top of my notebook. Now what? It's easy. I pick her up and move her. So she curls up right in front of my notebook. Even better. Now when I'm trying to look at the words on the page all I can see is two big ol' eyes peering over the page at me. Minnie eventually got up and moved right beside me. She curled up and went to sleep. Talk about a reality check. I realized that all my puppy wanted was for me to pay attention to her for just a few minutes. All day she is stuck inside the house with Monkey Dog and the Taco Bell dog (both of them are stuffed). She flings them around, puts them on her bed to sleep by her, and has a downright good time with them. Still, all day long she doesn't have anybody to play with her or pet her or call her silly names. Then I come home and completely ignore her for something as nonsensical as British literature. Some nerve I have! I further realized that I don't spend enough time paying attention to the small stuff--like Minnie. Granted, she's small, but she deserves just as much of my attention as my computer or my guitar or my books or anything else. I kept thinking about it all for a while. Obviously, I still am, and that's why I'm writing this. The small things are easy to overlook. For example, we never realize the power behind a smile from a stranger on the street or a note from a friend who only wants to say "Hi!" There are two types of small things, and they should be handled very differently. But how do we know the difference? It's hard to tell. There's the small stuff that you "don't sweat," and there's the small stuff that you "don't forget." There must be a certain satisfaction that comes with knowing the difference. Taxes, bills, diets, traffic lights... we, or at least I, tend to pay more attention to those things than we do to friends, family, pets, and our own well-being. Things get mixed up and we often focus on the wrong "small stuff." There's a song called "Don't Ask Me How I Know" that has some pretty valid points. The song advises, "Sell your truck while it's still running," and "Don't drink the water in Mexico," and "Don't rush off the phone when your mama calls / You ain't that busy." It all sounds like good advice to me. Sometimes we have to learn from the mistakes of others, and sometimes we learn from our own. I mean, my mama died before I realized that, like they say, we don't always get another chance. So, it's important to recognize the small stuff. Try to see the difference in what matters and what doesn't. I guess we all have to decide on that for ourselves, but don't forget that today is tomorrow's yesterday, and the things that we pour our hearts into should be things that will actually matter tomorrow or--even better--several years down the road. That's the way I see it.