Oliver Burkeman and Alexandra Horowitz had wonderful lessons for me last month … and again this month! Burkeman certainly doesn’t suggest getting a puppy as a way to embrace “…the truth about your limited time and limited control over that time” (Four Thousand Weeks, p. 235). and Horowitz doesn’t suggest embracing that truth as a helpful way to navigate these early puppy weeks. and yet … their two messages really do intersect right here.

Tool 7 in Burkeman’s Appendix (Ten Tools for Embracing Your Finitude) is to Seek Out Novelty in the Mundane. He suggests this as a way to slow down time: “Experience life with twice the usual intensity, and ‘your experience of life would be twice as full as it currently is’ — and any period of life would be remembered as having lasted twice as long. We can accomplish this by doing “anything that draws [our] attention more fully into what [we’re] doing in the present.” (p. 242)

Lucy is all about (and I think Horowitz would agree only about) the present. My best hours with her are ones where I am, too. and maybe also where we are both asleep 😉 although those hours aren’t nearly as frequent as the ones with sticks, leaves, pinecones, and toys. I’m seeing my home and its small yard in so many new ways. I’m noticing the changing light and how quickly the different parts of our yard shift from sun to shadow to dark and back again; the abundance of sticks, leaves, and pinecones ♥; and the joy of roses still blooming in our back and side yards (and the not-so-joy of stumbling over thorny stems in the dark, in my pajamas).

Maybe I would’ve figured all this out anyway, but it feels like a special lesson (and even a blessing) that I had this OLW – and those two books! – to guide me.

and finally, a big thank you to Carolyn – in advance! (her linkup officially begins next Monday) – for hosting these monthly check-ins … and to all of you for following along with me.