Look forward

 Melinda Esparza walks her dogs.

Photo By Edgar Schrock

 January is a month filled with plans, and a
sense of entering new territory.  And that's good.
A friend taught me to pay attention to how
 dogs move through life. It's rare for a dog out
for a walk to look back. She said we could learn
a vital lesson from that, and I think she's right.
It's counter intelligent to focus too much on the past,
the minute details, the what went wrong?, the who
 hurt who?, and who said what, and what does it all mean?
That doesn't mean that we can't treasure our
delightful memories of people, places, meals,
music, wonderful books, art and a whole
world of past pleasure.

But it does mean that thinking about the next
minute, what you see in front of you, what is
special right now, and then leading yourself
forward with engaging plans will be a better
way to foster feelings of happiness, than
dwelling on all the should have, could have,
would haves that plague us.  Instead move
forward and notice what's great, and
what you are doing well today.

Now how about a walk with the dog?

Have a moving-forward-with-grace day. 

(Note -  I don't mean we should forget
our history.  I mean we have to live today
no matter what that history was.)