Gretchen Rubin wrote in The Happiness Project about the year she spent “test-driving the wisdom of the ages, the current scientific studies, and the lessons from popular culture about how to be happy.” The Puppiness Project is my attempt to learn the same from Honey, my Golden Retriever.
Today’s lesson is one that is best taught by a puppy. A mischievous puppy. Today’s lesson comes from foster puppy Scooter.
Fun is everywhere; look for it.
Scooter has magic powers. We never know where he’ll turn up next. And we never see him going there.
This week we’ve heard rustling sounds from inside the closet—yep, Scooter was exploring. And I’ve pulled my bike inside the house just to find Scooter outside on the porch. How he got by my bike, my legs, and the swinging door I’ll never know.
Scooter will climb or sneak into any place where fun is likely to happen.
Life is short. Don’t wait for fun.
Someday I’ll have more time to do fun stuff. Isn’t that what many of us say?
We work hard our entire lives in hopes of some day retiring and finding time to do all the fun things we’ve put off. I’ve been guilty of procrastinating, of planning to have fun some day.
In one of my sailing books I read about a couple who planned to go on an extended cruise when they retired. Something convinced them to take a leave of absence from their teaching jobs to commence their voyage instead of waiting for retirement. They had a great time.
But the husband didn’t make it to retirement. He died of a heart attack when he was 60 years old.
It’s a good thing they didn’t wait to have their fun.
Puppies never wait for fun.
With Honey and Scooter around the house, it’s a 24 hour fun fest—bitey face throughout the day interrupted by periodic zoomies.
They never wait for something else to happen before having fun. Honey and Scooter and open to fun whenever they can have it.
It’s time for me to start putting myself in the way of fun. If it’s good enough for puppies, it’s good enough for me.
i thought your title was meant for me!
icing before the cake is the way G lives. for me, being human, it’s more icing WITH the cake. but at least it’s not the last option 🙂
What a great post. I need to make ore time for bitey face games – even if my friends do look at me sideways when I try toinitiate them.
Great post Pamela. I think we all could live a little more like this. Think how happy we would be if we did? I think Miss Georgia described it perfectly – a little icing before the cake. 🙂
BTW – That little Scoter is adorable. I could ask what Honey thinks, but based on the pic I think I know. LOL!
Hey! I’M fun!
I need to take a lesson from Scooter as well… it’s so easy to put off fun until later when life gets in the way.
Whatever it’s called it looks like fun and I’d be certain to join in if I was there!! I can’t think of any good reason to put off having fun!! 🙂
Your pal Snoopy 🙂
Wouldn’t it be great if we all got to have scheduled playtimes to love forward to? Like when we had recess at school? I don’t know how many times I tell the dogs, just one more minute…I think I need to start taking that minute and throw it out the window!!
You put into words something I’ve been contemplating myself! Having Kuster around has been good for us. I can’t keep up with anything else in my life right now, but I’ve realized that all that other stuff can wait. I only have right now and I can either waste it on things I won’t remember, or I can spend it on something that I will remember for a very long time!
I couldn’t agree more! *waggy tail*
It shouldn’t be so hard to make time to have fun, should it? But I am totally guilty of this. “Next year,” I’ll say. “Next year we’ll go rafting. Or maybe the year after.” The only people who suffer for this are ourselves. Instead of worrying about not getting everything done, I need to just get out there and do it!
I don’t think anyone can avoid fun when there’s a puppy around!