Great conversations these last two days, I guess the ABBC thing isn’t as cut and dried as I thought. Ok, I have been a passenger sitting in an RV driving across the US for 8 of the last 13 days. Now my philosophical side is emerging. Maybe it is because John is getting stressed as random lights come on the dash such as; “check engine” or “battery” or “ABS system”. Maybe it is in response to trying get a vegetarian meal while traveling across the southern states (don’t get me started about dining at “Bucks” with all of the hunters on Monday night). Whatever the reason, here are some of my random thoughts while trekking across North American on our way home.
I believe there are answers for every question or problem you may have, provided you keep asking yourself the right questions, in the right way.
I believe inner peace is the most valuable gift you can give yourself and meditation is the most underrated process in the world.
I believe we soon think, value, speak, model and ultimate become very similar to the five people we spend the most time around.
Even though I am a proud Canadian, I also love the USA. I love the dramatic differences in scenery from the rainforest type climate of Washington State to the deserts of Arizona and all of those beaches! I love the climate options of living in a place that has four seasons a year or the choosing the same one all year around. I love Hawaii and am so grateful you can go and enjoy the escape of a tropical island while still being within the security of the USA.
I also really admire the pride American’s take in doing things to their absolute best.
However I do wish all of America would embrace the need to recycle. Once you have been raised with it (as we are in Canada), it becomes almost painful to throw a plastic bottle into a trash can. Even if it was started at every agility trial you go to. Lynda and I often do it when we go to trials or when I hold camps in Florida. We hang out recycling bags and take them to the nearest depot or if none available, take them home with us. At home John and I not only recycle glass, plastic and paper, we also have a composte recycling bin in an effort to reduce the volume of trash that gets picked up every week and taken to landfill. It is all about energy being reused somewhere else in life, rather than being buried in the ground for all of eternity.
What is the best feeling in the world? I have been sitting her trying to decide what could qualify for the world’s best feeling. My criteria to earn the award of “The Worlds Best Sensation” is that anyone can attain it, from children on up. There are no barriers to gender, marital or financial status.
I think the feeling of relief you get when you thought someone or something was lost to you forever and then you find out it
was a mistake is a good one. Like to hear a loved one was killed but then it was a false report (a newspaper once reported that my sister had been killed, luckily she saw it first and told us about it!). But to experience that best feeling, you would first have to experience one of worst feelings of your life, so that can’t be considered the best.
I guess winning a major Championship or cheering for your favorite team that wins the Super Bowl would be up there, but that would eliminate all non sports fans from the possibility of experiencing the best feeling in the world.
I imagine witnessing the birth of your own child would rank up there but since I don’t have any first hand experience (nor intend on doing any investigative research to answer this question) I can’t comment. So here is what I think is the best feeling in the world.
To me there is no better feeling in the world then the relief you get from the pain that leaves your body after you have laughed so hard that you could no longer catch your breath.
You got one better? What do you think is the best feeling or sensation or the best anything, in the world. Keep it PG 13 people!
Today I am grateful that we will be home sometime today or tomorrow.
This comment is to Nelci: my husband is a HUGE Rocky fan. One of the Rocky movies has been on every other night here for the past 3 weeks. I have no idea why. And if it’s on tv, then he’s watching it. He will be THRILLED to know you quoted Rocky! LOL!!!
I really appreciate you vocalizing your feelings about recycling. I bring all of my plastic bottles home with me after a trial. I also try to use aluminum water bottles.
A wonderful feeling…hmmm…I also don’t have children so I would have to go with the laughter bit. How about laughing so hard and long that your cheeks are literally in pain. Once I got an asthma attack from laughing for 10 minutes straight. That was bittersweet!
Here’s a great feeling that brings me back to my teenage days: finding out a boy really likes you when you thought you had no chance…ahh, the days of young love.
taking my dog and puppy to the senior center and having them entertain the folks for a whole hour . Seeing there faces when they got a puppy hug or told me where to hide the toy so River could find it was priceless. Doing some clicker training and having both dogs and seniors enjoy it . Having that experience is hard to beat..
Those moments when you look at your dog and they look at you and your heart swells up into your throat. Most often, this is accompanied by an overwhelming need to squeeze some part of their body’s (for me it’s lips!)
This often happens to me with my new puppy when I’m on the computer. He walks slowly up to me and is wiggling his little butt so hard it’s blurring. He has this little smile where just the very corners of his lips are turned up and making wee wrinkles. I can’t help myself…I grab his lips between my fingers and squeeze while he wiggles so hard he could just take off into the air.
Surely the best feeling is pride….. The first time your child writes his name, when the teacher says he is such a well behaved child or when he takes a dog he hardly knows into the junior ring and knows all the right cues and handles it better than most adults :-). When the dog you never thought would ever compete as she was so nervous finds her confidance and the manic, out of control collie is eventually tamed (slightly) and both win class after class having the most amazing season ever. When the Lab doesn’t air scent (even though he’s in a horse arena full of smells) and he finally gets those weave entries!
It’s not the winning that really means anything it’s the pride in knowing what you have overcome in order to acheive that win!
Wonderful reading …
Susan, I see a book in the making …. Oprah…. Ellen….David…
Looks like a common theme is RELIEF!
I have had the relief of finding a lost pet. Relief from pain. Relief knowing that somthing bad had happened, hadn’t. Warm clothes when your cool. Cool water when your hot. Knowing you didnt screw up your dogs training when you thought you had.
Relief is high on my list of good feelings.
Watching the smiles, listening to the giggles and laughter of the abused and neglected children at the Abused Children’s Shelter when they play with my little agility “genius” who doubles as a therapy dog. Those little innocent children connect with the little innocent dog and there is nothing like it in the world. I have been told by staff that the times with my little dog are the only times some of those children smile…..ahhhh.
This one may be hard for some to understand, but it is real for me. There is a tearful emptiness coupled with an extreme sense of tranquility, peacefulness and joy that overcomes me. This feeling has only come to me twice in my life, when euthanizing my geriatric pets. A great weight is lifted once that day comes, knowing your once vibrant companion’s soul has been set free from his/her failing body. I feel a greater sense of connectedness to my spirituality in these moments, and so very blessed for the time I had with them… and the uniquely special spot that each will hold in my heart forever.
Finally pushing the shoulders of my baby out. Nothing like that. 😉
My best feeling: the moments when I look at my daughter and it chokes me up. I can’t believe I finally have my baby and I feel more blessed than I could have ever imagined to share my life with her.
Making someone smile.
When I was a young girl my mom used to take me to an art supply store. I hated tagging along, but mostly because the woman who ran the aotre was always grumpy and never smiled. Well instead of no longer going to the store my mom challenged me to get this woman to smile. So every time we went to the store I would approach and engage the women more then ever before and yes I finally made her smile. My feeling about that woman and her store changed from a bad place to go to a good one.
I still love to make people smile – I think there is no better feeling then know you have made someone feel a bit better even if it might be a fleeting moment.
Spending time one on one with my dog.
Putting on a whole outfit of warm clothes straight out of the dryer on a cold day. Guess I left out people from warm climates on that one, but am I right northerners!?
Nelci’s quote from Rocky is thought provoking: “But ain’t about how hard you hit… It’s about how hard you can get hit, and keep moving forward… how much you can take, and keep moving forward. That´s how winning is done. Now, if you know what you worth, go out and get what you worth.”
That’s where one of the best feelings in the world comes from. Getting up and dusting yourself off after taking a blow, and overcoming whatever challenge you faced, by coming back — better, stronger. The feeling after you have succeeded and won against all odds (a life-threatening illness, overcoming a fear, whatever your personal mountain is), despite the challenge, the fear, or what people might have said to you — this is the best feeling. Always there, even while you are celebrating your success, is the thought that you can think big, because you are worth it and the people (and dogs 🙂 you love are too.
I think that relief of a heavy personal guilt is a good feeling. The best in fact…
Earlier this year, my young agility dog injured himself. He didn’t show the signs of anything wrong for a long time. I took him to an indoor agility trial( turf footing) and he just lost all movment in the rear end. He could still run, but took every bar on the course and could not do the weaves. I took him to my vet and it was found that he had locked all the muscles in is rear end to try and compensate for a bad hip. I pulled him from any and all trials and training. My vet stated that if I did not give him the time to heal, he probly would not be able to do agility EVER again :(. My heart was broken, here was my baby boy, the one who I had dreamed of running at Nationals, injured and lame. I spend the next 9 months re-habilitating him, re-training jumping, and going back to all the basics. He is not a naturally confident dog and so this was a LONG process. It probly could have been a quicker process if I would have been able to release my huge load of guilt. I kept blaming myself for all that had happened. Why didn’t I see it comming??? Why couldn’t I recognise the signs??? why why why….simple answer, I didn’t know ….July 2009, I finaly have the guts to enter him in a Steeplechase run. He now runs 22 specials instead of 26 regular, and I am still worried that this is too soon…we get to the start line, and the rest was a blur. I remember comming off the filed in tears and breaking down and hugging my dog. He had done it. We had made it back. To this day, the memory still bring tears to my eyes. Here was my baby boy showing me ” its ok mom, I’m all better :)”. THAT is the best feeling in the world .
Susan, your post really hits home. A week ago, our beloved black kitty, Bruiser Bear, snuck out of the house when I let the dogs out. He was a real stinker when I tried to catch him — running away from me and hiding where I couldn’t get him, so I decided to go teach my class and get him when I came back.
By the time I returned, he was no longer in the yard, even though we have a six-foot privacy fence. I walked all over the neighborhood calling for him, a bag of treats in one hand and an open can of smelly tuna in the other. I called my husband to come home from work ASAP and other family members to help me search. We looked until 10pm. It was dark and cold and I worried that he hadn’t meowed in response. Was he hurt? Did a coyote take him? Could he survive such cold temperatures overnight? I felt so guilty and angry with myself. I should’ve tried harder to catch him. I should’ve canceled my class.
We couldn’t sleep, sick with worry. As soon as the sun was up, my husband took the car out to look for him. I stayed home to make lost kitty flyers. An hour later, the phone rang and I saw it was my husband. I thought for sure he was going to tell me that he had found Bruiser dead, hit by a car. But what I heard was, “I found Bruiser … alive!” He had decided to stop by the shelter even though they weren’t open on Wednesdays. A kind employee let him in and there was our Bear! A police officer had found him in the middle of the street and brought him there, so he had spent the night warm and safe. I have never felt such a rush of relief, love and happiness all at once.
At this point in my life, Morgan Harrington (www.findmorgan.com)walking into the house for Thanksgiving dinner would be the ultimate best feeling in the world
My current dog-in-training (GSD) is totally unlike the others (6) I’ve had and it has taken a couple of years for me to finally accept that even though he’s a perfect pet, gets along with every dog he meets and is beautiful and smart, he doesn’t have the same focus and drives I’m used to. I’ve had to re-think my expectations and training with him which means I’m learning to enter his world and letting him guide me. . Best feeling – seeing the light in his eye when he figures out what I want and happily does it. He’s turning out to be a super dog and I’m humbled by his patience.
The thing about childbirth… it’s not for everyone :-)…
but it’s not the NECESSARY part… it’s the HAVING a child in your lives part that is… and the absolute BEST that comes from that – the ‘having’ a child in your lives part – it happens regularly! Watching your child doing their ‘firsts’ – from first breath, to first smile, to first step, to first word… they’re breath-taking and more addictive as they go along… hearing your child say ‘I love you mom (or Dad)’ without being prompted… PRICELESS!
My dogs have all been shelter pups. The best feeling is the first pack walk with the rest of the dogs, to see that little puppy butt running along, little tail held high & wagging. It’s like the first breath of a new beginning.
“The world ain’t all sunshine and rainbows. It’s a very mean and nasty place… and I don´t care how tough you are, it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently, if you let it. You, me or nobody, is gonna hit as hard as life. But ain’t about how hard you hit… It’s about how hard you can get hit, and keep moving forward… how much you can take, and keep moving forward. That´s how winning is done. Now, if you know what you worth, go out and get what you worth. But you gotta be willing to take the hits. And not pointing fingers saying: You ain´t what you wanna be because of him or her or anybody. Cowards do that and that ain´t you! You´re better than that!” (Rocky Balboa)
One thing that always makes me feel happy is the amazing view you get when walking behind your dog, trotting along happy-go-lucky! I look at the way you can see the pads of the rear feet, if ears flop how they sort of jiggle, the way the body sort of bounces — and, I feel happy!
racing in flyball and letting go for a pass you know will either be heart-stopping good or early. you watch your dog cross the line, you see the pass evaluator’s face contort, the red light DOESN’T go on, you NAILED IT!
that’s a pretty good feeling, don’t you think?
About a year ago, my then 13 1/2 year old BC Peggie went missing for 3 days. It was getting colder every day with snow falling and temperatures down to -7C and coyotes all around us (I live in the country). I didn’t know if I’d ever see her again and 3 days later she was found by a neighbor, a bit skinny but fine otherwise. It felt like getting a 2nd chance with her and she’s still doing great now. I’m grateful for every day with each and everyone of my dogs.
The warm toasty feeling of sitting on the couch with 1 dog on my left, 1 dog curled up on my lap (along with a cat) and 2 dogs laying on my right, and heaven forbid if the phone rings.
There’s nothing quite like finishing a big project, particularly if it’s something I’ve procrastinated with starting or had a nasty deadline. The feeling of relief and knowing your time has just been given back to you is such a rush. The dogs are always happier as well when they don’t have to share lap space with a laptop.
Ahhh but be careful of that feeling Tracey, I got addicted to it. As a sales rep I would let me reports back up in order to entertain that feeling of relief when I finally got them all done. Couldn’t get that feeling doing them each week when they were due:)
There are lots of bests in a life, but a few have been the tears following my girls best in show win, the pride of watching my funny little cardigan pull 500+ pounds, and the joy in the dogs eyes when I walk in the door each day. All special to me.
I think for me one of the best feelings is that moment I have sometimes when hanging out with the few people I’ve known forever and realizing in that moment that I have a deep connection with this person and that they truly know me and that they not only accept me for who I am but that they love me completely for it. It’s such a comfortable feeling that makes me feel all warm and happy inside.
Sitting on the floor being swarmed by a large litter of baby border collies, knowing that one of them is going home with you.
There’s a certain sigh- I get home from work and no matter what has gone on in the day, it’s demanded that I sit down in my chair and put my feet up. My dog jumps up in my lap (all 50 lbs. of him), curls up and sighs. It’s the sound of utter contentment, pure joy and total relaxation. If he could talk I think he’d say “oh, yes, this is what I was waiting for”. Would that we could all find contentment as easily and completely as our dogs do.
A kiss, from a son/daughter to a Mother/Father, a kiss from your first love/current love one, a kiss from a friend you have not seen in a long, long time, a kiss from Grandma/Grandpa, a kiss from your dog/pet when you are very sad or when you are very happy, a kiss from a person you admire and never expected it, a kiss from the wind or the rain when you are just experiencing life, a kiss…
Finding my old Springer Kelly after loosing her for a night. July 1st, walking with my friend with Baxter and Kelly. Fireworks go off and so did Kelly. I honestly didnt realize until my friend said, you better call Kelly, I cant see her. Well that was around 9 o’clock. I searched until about 3 a.m. until I couldnt search anymore. Went home, slept in the rec room with the screen door open incase she returned. At 6 a.m. I woke up, drove back to where I lost her. I saw a hot air balloon which she is also frightened of and heard barking. I ran out of the car and yelled and yelled her name and there she came running. She was caked with mud and filthy. I cried and cried and hugged her to pieces. A lady said to me, you are pretty happy and couldnt believe I would hug this pooch who was so filthy. I certainly didnt care, Kelly sat on my lap as I drove home. I felt the worst as you said Susan and this was feeling the best. Something I will never forget. It does make you realize how important our dogs are to us doesnt it.
Good one Michelle! My dogs definitely will vote for yours over mine!
Very thought provoking post Susan, I think I will need some time to think about all the possibilities that could be the best, but here is one for now.
Inspired by the recent and warm weather and fast approaching Summer in this part of the world…
Jumping into a nice cool pool on a stinking hot day, even my dogs can appreciate this 🙂