In an animal communication reading yesterday, my client wanted me to ask her dog what he thought about something going on in her life. The dog answered by giggling and telling me he wanted her to truly enjoy each moment. I don’t think I’ve ever had a dog come through giggling before—he helped me see the real fun and happiness of this thing in my client’s life and how it’s so much more powerful to fully experience that instead of focusing on analyzing the situation or wondering what will come next.
After that reading, while I was caught up working on something that was stressing me out, I heard our cat Calla meowing from the next room. I turned from my desk to see her carry a toy in, drop it on the floor, and look up at me with super frisky “let’s play!” eyes. Meowing while carrying a toy is typically her late-night behavior after all the lights are out, but yesterday she did it way earlier in the day. Since it was a new twist on her routine, I knew it was important to pay attention, and I dropped what I was doing to play with her. It felt like Calla was continuing the same message my client’s dog had—it’s so not worth it to be doing anything but finding the joy in every present moment.
During the second horse workshop I attended in Costa Rica a few years back, I practiced an exercise with Cosmo where I stood in the middle of the pasture, and through embodying the energy of confidence and leadership, directed him to trot in a circle around me. I took this challenge very seriously and put my game face on. (Knowing confidence and leadership have not always come naturally to me, I really put in the effort to get myself there.)
What surprised me was that in between each attempt when I’d confer with the teacher, Cosmo would trot right up to me and playfully get up in my space. My teacher likened it to a dog bringing me a ball. As Cosmo did this over and over again, I realized it was his way of bringing joy into the exercise that I had made so very serious.
It's so easy for us humans to get distracted by pressure—from the world around us or from ourselves. That in turn can take us into a spiraling stress of what ifs and doubts which is as far away from presence and joy as you can get. What I love about Cosmo’s message specifically is that you can be confident and do what needs to be done and make it joyful too.
I think Cosmo, Calla, and my client’s dog all agree that the present joy is where we thrive, where we can be our true selves, and where we really deserve to be.
And that seriously makes me giggle. 💜😄
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