Danny [our Irish setter] may not have learned what I wanted to teach him, but he certainly taught me a few things…which are not to be forgotten: We are all what we are inside ourselves–and it is those things that we need to develop.
We are not here to become the pawns of someone else’s ambitions…We also let Danny go on to become his own unique self in ways that brought laughter to us all. I had wanted a dog with character, and I got a dog who was a character. And we were all the happier for it.
But I learned a lesson from his search for himself that has stood the test of time: Life is not about becoming someone else. Life is a matter of coming to be the best of what we are–and allowing ourselves to enjoy being it, at the same time.
This excerpt from the book Two Dogs and a Parrot by Joan Chittister is reprinted by permission of BlueBridge/United Tribes Media Inc.
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