Happiness and the Wisdom of Dogs

Happiness and the Wisdom of Dogs

happiness dog wisdom

Happiness is the wisdom of dogs

Keep me away from the wisdom which does not cry, the philosophy which does not laugh and the greatness which does not bow before children.              ~ Kahlil Gibran

dogs happiness happy

Happy Dogs

I’m sure this has bounced around the internet for quite some time but it’s a really touching piece of wisdom, enjoy and have a happy day my friends.       ~ Rev Kane

Being a veterinarian, I had been called to examine a ten-year-old Irish Wolfhound named Belker. The dog’s owners, Ron, his wife Lisa, and their little boy Shane, were all very attached to Belker, and they were hoping for a miracle.

I examined Belker and found he was dying of cancer. I told the family we couldn’t do anything for Belker, and offered to perform the euthanasia procedure for the old dog in their home.

As we made arrangements, Ron and Lisa told me they thought it would be good for six-year-old Shane to observe the procedure. They felt as though Shane might learn something from the experience.

The next day, I felt the familiar catch in my throat as Belker ‘s family surrounded him. Shane seemed so calm, petting the old dog for the last time, that I wondered if he understood what was going on. Within a few minutes, Belker slipped peacefully away.

The little boy seemed to accept Belker’s transition without any difficulty or confusion. We sat together for a while after Belker’s Death, wondering aloud about the sad fact that animal lives are shorter than human lives.

Shane, who had been listening quietly, piped up, ”I know why.”

Startled, we all turned to him. What came out of his mouth next stunned me. I’d never heard a more comforting explanation. It has changed the way I try to live.

He said,”People are born so that they can learn how to live a good life — like loving everybody all the time and being nice, right?” The Six-year-old continued, ”Well, dogs already know how to do that, so they don’t have to stay as long.”

Live simply.

Love generously.

Care deeply.

Speak kindly.

Remember, if a dog was the teacher you would learn things like:

When loved ones come home, always run to greet them.

Never pass up the opportunity to go for a joyride.

Allow the experience of fresh air and the wind in your face to be pure Ecstasy.

Take naps.

Stretch before rising.

Run, romp, and play daily.

Thrive on attention and let people touch you.

Avoid biting when a simple growl will do.

On warm days, stop to lie on your back on the grass.

On hot days, drink lots of water and lie under a shady tree.

When you’re happy, dance around and wag your entire body.

Delight in the simple joy of a long walk.

Be loyal.

Never pretend to be something you’re not.

When someone is having a bad day, be silent, sit close by, and nuzzle them gently.

ENJOY EVERY MOMENT OF EVERY DAY! ~ Rev Kane

 

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Fear is Killing Your Happiness

Happiness is a Choice

Writing Away the Darkness

Appalachian Trail Happiness, Where to buy the Book

My Polar Bear Adventure

 

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Inspirational Sayings About Life & Happiness

Inspirational Sayings About Life & Happiness

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Some great sayings about inspiration and living a happy life, enjoy my friends ~ Rev Kane2 3 3 4 4 5 5 6 6 7 7 8 9 10 11 11 11 12 12 13 13 14 14 15 16

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Happiness is Cooking Tofu

Happiness is Cooking Tofu

Cooking and baking is both physical and mental therapy. ~ Mary Berry

It’s a holiday weekend, so I thought tonight I’d write something a little light for my Sunday night post.

My little brother turned vegan at 14 and stayed one for decades, he and his family are still vegetarian, but in a nod to being my brother, eating pizza finally ended his veganism.  I’ve never been opposed to vegetarianism for anyone else, but I am very much a meat eater.  However, I love food and love to cook and so I’m into good food whether or not it contains meat.  My brother for a time tried to turn me on to eating tofu, it took a while but about 20 years ago I finally decided to give it a try.  Luckily for me the Chinese restaurant where I first tried it, in a dish called bean curd country style, made a really tasty dish.  On top of that, one of my concerns with tofu, the  consistency and texture was not an issue in this dish.  The tofu had an chewy consistency that was very different from the tofu I’d eaten before and quite good.

Image result for bean curd country style

Over the years, I’ve come to enjoy tofu made in a variety of ways and of various consistencies.  In what has become my favorite Chinese dish, mapo tofu I actually prefer the soft cubes of tofu, it works really well with the spicy nature of the dish.  mapo tofu is tofu, with ground pork and seasonings in a spicy Sichuan sauce.

A few weeks ago I was looking for ways to use riced cauliflower and was going through some stir fry recipes substituting the riced cauliflower for actual rice when I chanced upon a tofu dish that looked quite good.  Particularly when to my surprise the recipe started discussing how to texture the tofu the same way I first ate it.  The process is quite simple, you drain the tofu by wrapping the block in paper towels putting the block of tofu between a cutting board and another board or books and let it drain for ten minutes.  You then cube the tofu and put it on a baking sheet, I laid down aluminum foil and sprayed it with olive oil.  You then bake it at 400 for about 20 minutes.  You can sprinkle it with oil, garlic and ginger or whatever you’d like.   You then use it in a stir fry or bake of your choosing that calls for tofu.  I made it tonight in a stir fry with vegetables and a peanut sauce, it was fantastic. The sauce was quite easy as well:

1 tsp of oil
1/4 cup of soy sauce
1/4 cup of honey
1/2 tsp of garlic
2 1/2 tsp of peanut butter

All in all it was a great dinner and a happy day. ~ Rev Kane

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Happiness is Laughter: Cartoons

Happiness is Laughter: Cartoons

happiness, funny

 

Tonight a collection of single pane cartoons, to raise a smile and help you have a happy day my friends ~ Rev Kane

 

 

Click on the images to enlarge them

 

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I get little joy from life

I get little joy from life

joy happiness quote

So tonight I’m writing a personal post to one person, I don’t know who you are, where you are or what you are going through. I know that in looking at my site stats today that you found my site by doing a search in Google with the following phrase, “I get little joy from life.”  That phrase shook me to the core, it’s an ominous thing to be searching for on a search engine.  It screams of that feeling of otherness that I have so often written about.  The sentence made me feel in an instant, the way I felt at the depths of my depression, cold, black, alone.

YOU ARE NOT ALONE!  This is how I sign every copy of my book of poetry Otherness.  You are not alone, I’m here, I mean that whoever you are or anyone else feeling like this.  Reach out, happinesskane@aol.com, comment on the blog.  You are not alone.  Life is hard, I won’t sugarcoat that one bit, but it’s also wonderful and amazing.  I know things can feel inevitable, unalterable and void of hope, it’s a lie, it’s fear lying to you, depression lying to you, the bloody chemicals in your brain, other people or even the voices in your head.  They lie, I know, I’ve been there and come through it.  YOU ARE NOT ALONE!  If it’s not me, reach out to someone else.  We’re here for you, I’m here you.

Dear readers, friends, this person is not the only one who feels this way and it’s not always the people you think are the weakest or most fragile.  The strong are often considered strong because they carry heavy loads with a smile on their face, sometimes they’re crying and bleeding inside.  So friends, reach out to someone when you read this, just say hello and ask, and mean it when you ask, how are you doing?  You may help someone have a happy day or even another  day. ~ Rev Kane

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Happiness is Photography: Burning Man 2014

Happiness is Photography: Burning Man 2014

 

happiness, burning man

Here are several sets of images from this years Burning Man festival, enjoy ~ Rev Kane

 

First off from the San Francisco Chronicle, photos by Mark Morford

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A really nice gallery by Sai Mokhtari

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Pictures from a drone’s eye-view

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Finally a gallery from one of my favorite photographers at the event, Patrick Roddie, of course I’m probably biased because he did my portrait (below) back in 2005.  Also his galleries focus on people, faces, body parts, great stuff.

happiness, burning man

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Random Happiness: Nature’s Beauty

Random Happiness: Nature’s Beauty

nature

Today, nothing more complicated than a bunch of really pretty pictures from nature, none of my own work today just a tour across the web, enjoy and have a happy day my friends ~ Rev Kane

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I’m not going to Burning Man this year

I’m not going to Burning Man this year

fomo

Sitting in my apartment on a beautiful Sunday, did a small celebration of my birthday (which is tomorrow) by going to the Museum of Modern Art in San Francisco.  Checked out the Warhol exhibit which was nice, didn’t of course compare with visiting the Warhol exhibit in Pittsburgh a few years ago, but they did a good job.  I especially dug the silver cloud room, basically air filled mylar pillows that a bunch of toddlers were going nuts with and having fun.

warhol warholReally dug some of the exhibits at MOMA, more in my next post. I think this painting might have been my favorite.

wizard artFunny what passes for a celebration as you get older.  It’s my birthday weekend and I’ve done such radical things as buy a rear wiper blade for my car, make a pizza, I did have some cake and ice cream. But I’m not so concerned with a big celebration for my 55th birthday especially being fresh off of a year of travel.  Although there is a twinge of why aren’t I on a craps table trying to throw hard 10s!  But that fear of missing out is small, as I wrote a few weeks ago I’m really happy right now.  So after a very long and hectic week at work, a nice quiet weekend was in order.

Many of my most recent birthdays have been celebrated in Reno, as I prepared to go into Burning Man.  A burner friend called me today, she was driving down highway 80 watching burners head east for the playa.  We had both recently talked about being good with not attending this year, but we both admitted a twinge of desire seeing people heading for the playa today.  Not quite fear of missing out, more a twinge of nostalgia, we’ve both spent many years on the playa and need a break from it, but that doesn’t mean we don’t miss our dusty playground.

Art, burning man

The Phoenix Art Installation at Burning Man

bliss happiness burning man

My favorite art piece from Burning Man

American flag, veterans day

An American Flag at the Temple at Burning Man

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The Man Burns

burning man happiness

Dawn at Burning Man

burning man loveNo great wisdom tonight, Burning Man was one of those bucket item lists in my life.  I went, loved it, and went seven more times.  I may go again someday.  The lesson to take from this is that you should satisfy your desires.  I have so many good memories from Burning Man, which is what brings that twinge of nostalgia.

athena's addict, rev kaneFinally, and again a fuller post soon, my third book Athena’s Addict has been published, literally today, on Amazon and I’m really excited about it.  A book of poetry focusing on love, madness, passion and a broken heart.  I hope you’ll check it out and as always, have a happy day my friends. ~ Rev Kane

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Happiness & Being Understood

Happiness & Being Understood

 

understanding

Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will ~ Martin Luther King

So tonight friends I want to talk about understanding, but I want to start with misunderstanding.  In the last couple of weeks I’ve had two situations in which people have made assumptions about me that were completely unfounded and then acted on their assumptions in a way which was detrimental to me.  I really find these situations to be frustrating, I don’t think there is anything as exasperating as being misunderstood.  It is one of the reasons that I myself am so blunt, open and honest with people, it is the hope that I’ll be understood and not put other people into the situation I recently found myself in.  Tonight I would ask you friends to slow your roll a bit, take time to listen to others and really try to understand what other people are saying, take the time to compare their actions to your conclusions so that you don’t find yourself acting on predetermined assumptions.  This is a skill called empathetic listening.

So tonight to help with that hope, a piece I found on-line about empathetic listening, I hope it helps and helps you have a happy day my friends ~ Rev Kane

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Happiness and Simplicity

Happiness and Simplicity

If one’s life is simple, contentment has to come. Simplicity is extremely important for happiness. Having few desires, feeling satisfied with what you have, is very vital: satisfaction with just enough food, clothing, and shelter to protect yourself from the elements. And finally, there is an intense delight in abandoning faulty states of mind and in cultivating helpful ones in meditation ~ Dalai Lama

mindful

Today I want to bring you some resources on happiness and simplicity.  Simplicity is one of those elusive goals that can really bring us true happiness, have a happy day my friends ~ Rev Kane

7 ways to find happiness through sustainability

Simplicity of Happiness

A really beautiful post

Simple living blog

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