The Awakened & Aligned Podcast with Shannon Kaiser
Life Lessons Learned from My Dogs
[applause] My name's Shannon Kaiser and I'm very happy to be here today. My topic is organizing your speech, number two, and I am going to talk about life lessons. Life lessons learned from my dogs. Yes, now how many of you guys have pets? There you get. Well, they say that dogs are man's best friend and this is the case for me. I've had many transitions in my life. As you know, life is a roller coaster, we go up and down and there's been some very important transitions in my life. And through each of those transitions, I've had a very special unique friend with me at a different time. I've had three different dogs and all have taught me three different valuable life lessons about what friendship and what life really means. And I'm going to share those with you guys today. Let's go back in time to when I was in first grade. First grade, I was living in Indianapolis, Indiana. It was a little girl six years old and I wanted a dog. I wanted a dog so bad that it's all I could think about. You know how when you think about something and you really want it, all of a sudden you start seeing it everywhere. Like if you want a red car, you start seeing red cars. Well, this was the case for me. I was seeing dogs everywhere in my sleep on the commercial and I would actually picture myself petting a little dog. My parents would walk into the living room and they're like, "What are you doing, lady?" And I'm like, "I'm petting my dog." And they're like, "Oh gosh, we're going to have to do something about this." Eventually, they caved. And I got a cute little cocker spaniel. She wasn't cute for very long, according to my parents. I mean, I was six. Of course, she could do no wrong. But from an adult perspective, that girl was a troublemaker. She would get into the pantry and the garbage. She would chew up all the toys. She wasn't potty trained in every single day. She would run away. And we'd have to go chase her because she loved being chased. Now, I learned something very valuable from her because with each new episode, every day of her going out and exploring, she'd come back with this glow. Like, "Oh my God, the world is bigger than our backyard." And I saw something in her. And it was the excitement for life. She taught me about exploring and the adventure that life really is. And it's a very valuable lesson to take forward. To realize that life is a big lesson and we need to just play. Because when we play, we are more fulfilled. Well, we moved out to Oregon and we had to leave her in Indianapolis because we didn't want to put her on her plane. But I learned that good friends are always going to stay with you, so she's always going to be with us. About six years later, I got another doc, Sandy. Sandy was a Golden Labrador Retriever and Sandy was the smartest dog anyone will ever meet in their whole entire life. It's kind of like, and this isn't just actually like a mother who has a child and says, "My baby is the cutest baby in the world." No, Sandy really was the smartest dog. At six weeks, I told her to sit and she sat. Never did I have to tell her again. She flew through puppy school, she sat, she rolled over, she never begged, she was a princess. As far as dogs were concerned, she was more human than most humans are. Well, I was at a time in life where I was at a new school. Like any new child, the new kid is usually a little bit, you know, on the outside. I was picked on. I was, you know, growing and changing. My body was changing and I was, you know, chubby little girl. I had frizzy hair and all the people decided to make fun of me. I didn't feel like I had any friends. My only real friend was my dog Sandy and she taught me about friendship. She taught me about the value of being present when somebody is in need. Sandy never judged me. She never once took anything out on me and she never once asked for me to defend myself or explain why I was me. She accepted me fully for who I was. I realized in order to be a good friend for other people, I need to return that same courtesy. I need to not judge people. I need to love them unconditionally with no strings attached and respect them. Appreciate them for who they are. Now eventually Sandy passed on and we come to two years ago. Two years ago I was going through a very hard breakup. I was just laid off. I was living in a city that I didn't love. I needed a change. Something was calling to me to go on to the adoption site and look, and I did. And I saw this beautiful golden retriever. It didn't matter what age he was. He was a dog that I needed to meet. So I asked for the appointment and I met him and the very first moment he came into my apartment for the meet and greet, he jumped up on me and he looked me in the eye as to say, "It's about time we finally get to meet. We've been waiting for you. You gave me a kiss and the rest is history." Tucker is a kind, gentle old soul. Tucker is a very awesome dog. He has taught me the value of cuddling. Whenever I'm sad or even when I'm really happy, he knows how to come up and just nuzzle in. He is a cuddle dog. And he reminds me that we should never stay mad at people because you can't stay mad at them. He's too cute. So I adopted a rule based off my relationship with Tucker. I'd never go to bed mad at anybody, ever. I always forgive. So if you have the three lessons in life, if you're feeling a little stuck, just remember to play, to listen, and to forgive. (mouse clicking)