Doug Cartland's Four Minute Newsletter
Doug Cartland, Inc.11/30/2010
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ex-u-ber-ant: uninhibitedly enthusiastic

 

I was curled up in the fetal position on our living room couch a couple of months ago, sick as a dog (if, of course, that dog was really sick).  My body was...hmm...on second thought I'll spare you the details...a meal of yours might be around the corner.  It was nighttime, and my wife was very conveniently at work.  (Just kidding about the convenient part-I know she felt really badly for me...no really...umm...well, she said she did).

 

Anyway, on the couch's back pillow right next to my face, curled up in a little ball, was our five and half pound papillon named Risi.   I was sick and restless, dozing in and out of sleep all night.  When I woke periodically (seemed it was about every half hour), I would see Risi still sleeping next to me.  When I lifted my head even slightly, she stirred and licked me intensely on the nose. 

 

She does everything intensely. 

 

She'd give me just a few quick little licks every time I woke up and each time I had to smile.  She was quite a nurse.  When I look back on it I still smile.

 

I've never liked little dogs.  That is to say I didn't really dislike them, I just had no use for them.  They seemed to me to be cats masquerading as dogs, wanting to be inside and on a couch, all yap and no substance.  That's why four years ago we went and got me a "real" dog, a smooth collie named Blue.

 

And then, a little over a year ago, we got Risi. 

 

Risi doesn't do anything halfway.  When you call her, she runs at you with all her might.  When she drinks water, she sucks it back so fast that she spends half the time choking.   When she takes a treat from my hand, I expect to look down to see only a nub remaining where the hand once was. 

 

When Heather or I get home, she becomes unhinged.  She runs up to us so excited that she can't stand...literally she flattens herself on the ground and crawls to us, barely able to contain the excitement over the fact that we are home.  Thus we nicknamed her very cleverly...ahem...wait for it..."Flatsy." 

 

When she plays, she is absolutely beside herself.  She gets so worked up that she flips on her back shaking with excitement with her legs splaying and flailing in every direction.  (I do believe I've caught our fourteen year old papillon, Earl, rolling his eyes at this.  I know I've seen Blue do it.)

 

When chasing a toy...well...we've learned to aim her toward things that won't injure her when she crashes into them because she inevitably does. To get the toy out of her mouth we need the Jaws of Life.

 

When she licks a face, it is with such quick rapidity and ferocity that you're quite certain you will have no face left when she's done.  It could be us or a stranger...makes no difference. 

 

When watching her, I've often thought I'd like to live life that way.  That everything I did would be with reckless enthusiasm.  Everything would be in the moment, my whole heart in it.  That the pure exuberance of doing it would dominate my mind and not the obsession with potential consequences, not the guilt of not doing all the other zillion things I could be doing, not the hopeless cynicism that makes me want to do nothing, not the concern of what other people think.

 

Life is not complicated for Risi; it consists of simply the pure exuberance of doing.  Yeah I'd like that...the closer I can get to it the better...and I think of that and smile every time I see Risi run.


 Risi
Risi
Till next week...

I'd love to hear from you. Reply to this email and let me know your thoughts.

Doug

Doug Cartland, President
Doug Cartland, Inc.

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