A Waylaid Playdate, a Coffee, and a Puppy
This is an excerpt from the weekly News-Loveletter. If you would like it sent to your inbox directly (with all the other juicy bits, including a mini joy practice), you can add yourself to my mailing list here.
My friend Kirsten, visiting from Germany, did not arrive when she’d planned to. I slow-danced with disappointment, then, through my joy practice, found possibility. When Kirsten stood on our step, my heart began to sing, and things got easy.
The reset I’d begun in disappointment became a fulcrum for all that came next. Our dear dog Leo had passed just 4 days before, and I felt ready to see the sun again. Kirsten and I grabbed a mocha on our way to the coast at 3:30, knowing we’d be back at 9 or 10.
Unused to caffeine, I felt like I'd swallowed a disco ball. The party was on! Kirsten and I walked the beach under a sunset of lavender and gold, then talked nonstop for 3 hours in the car. Such a sweet adventure to help my heart heal the loss of Leo.
At 11 PM, I lay in bed wide awake, the disco ball still flashing inside me from that grande mocha and sweet conversation with my friend.
I Primed. Feeling the love of Leo, I Primed for the wonder of our next canine companion. I imagined the intelligence, the gentle spirit, the exquisite connection I would feel in its presence. I felt the awe and wonder of a bond like no other. I breathed deeply and rhythmically into this and felt wildly alive with it. Oxygen floated my creativity to new levels.
I love to create, and I love to partner. With Leo, with the universe, with all the good that is. At 1 AM, I felt ready to be done with the vibrance of creation and tossed about for something new to do with my wakeful energy. I had a thousand questions banked up to ask the internet, so I started there.
And then it occurred to me: I could look on the Next Door app for a puppy. Seda and I had talked about getting a puppy in the spring, even before Leo got sick with cancer. I searched for a German Shepherd and Golden Retriever puppy because Leo was SUCH a good dog, and a picture popped up that took my breath away.
A tricolor “rescue” puppy full of strength and wisdom. He stood suspended in time, a sober 5 month old pup, looking straight into my soul. I began to message, then thought better of it. Would I place a puppy with someone who’d written to me at 3 AM?
I waited til morning. When I showed Seda, she agreed that we had to meet this guy. And now—you guessed it!—our now 7 month old puppy, Kenai, is a part of our family.
He learned all his basic obedience in a matter of days. He’s a rare combination of both enthusiastic and chill. Because he hadn’t seen beyond the fence of his former backyard, he’s got a lot to learn about meeting new people and dogs. Co-creation at its finest!
What blows my mind is that without my friend being late and the grande mocha, I’d never have gone looking. If I hadn’t gotten out of my funk about everything not going as planned, my mind and heart would not have been open to possibility. I’ve never found a dog so quickly after a beloved companion passed.
“Leo sent him to you,” said our vet after scrubbing out Kenai’s ears. He lay flopped on the floor at her feet. “This one’s a keeper.”
And so it is that life gives us what we least expect, in a manner we could never have imagined, and yet exactly what we needed. Hurray for an open heart and mind.