Dogs: An Inspiration

My dog Michi. She's the sweetest dog I've ever known. :)

"My dog is my motivation. Seeing a dog that despite being harmed, despite being treated like an animal, despite having a chain around, despite staying home lonely while we leave, despite it all... he's always there like a little kid, making you smile.

Dogs can feel how you feel. Haven't you ever felt their comfort?
Just to see that grateful dog that, despite it all, is still next to us motivates me. Even if we complain about him, he is always so cheerful.
We learn from everything Jica. Even from animals." ~ Taiga

A few weeks ago, I was feelings down and depressed. That's when I decided to have a lil talk with my trustworthy friend Taiga and simply let that out, let out all those troubles and tell her everything I felt and the things that bothered me.

She listened to me talk my craziness and in between our conversation, I asked her "What gives you motivation in life?" She mentioned smiles, her boyfriend, her friends, God, even me because I was an inspirational person to her. (Something I was unaware of.)

All of a sudden, she mentioned this certain motivation for life which took me by total surprise. Her dogs. That quote above is her exact words. I felt as my eyes opened wide and my jaw dropped. I had finally found a source of inspiration sense to my life. Never before had I considered dogs to serve as such an extreme example of perseverance, simplicity and unconditional love.

I couldn't help but feel hope resurface my being once more. I had been in a deep state of depression. I couldn't find a reason to motivate me and keep on my goals. I couldn't think of any. I was simply lost and tired.

I was uncheereble. My self-esteem was down to the lowest of the lowest, my humiliation and hurt ego was a fact. I coudn't help but feel weak but.. when she told me the quoted phrase above, I literally felt a bright dust brushing the pain out of my heart and being released out in the air-- blown away forever and becoming bright spectacles of light and uniting with the universe.

I had never thought of dogs in such a way. I'm a dog lover to top it off. I love my 2 dogs. In my times of pain I accompany my dog, Michi (pictured above) inside her dog house and hug her, pat her soft head.

 Michi's a shy and lazy dog so she doesn't play but my other dog does. A bit too hyperactive for play but he can be fun to look at. My point is that they always love me. They never deny my love.

Even if they live the life of well, a dog- they still love me. My Michi still loves me. Michi will forever be my daughter. Even beyond her death she will always be my first daughter. I never quite realized that even after we scold them for their misbehavior they still wag their little tails as soon as the see us again.

To our dogs, we are still those that feeds them and places their blankets to sleep. We are still their masters and forever will.

I had never thought that even after a busy day in which we've neglected her as a doggy she still loves us humans(or better said the food and safety we offer?). She never hesitastes to wag her tail and get on her two feet for us to pat her head and feed her food and water.

We gotta learn from the simplicity of dogs and love the world unconditionally, even when it seems like the world has not returned us what we expect of it.

5 life lessons we can learn from dogs:

1) Don't hold grudges, forgive and forget - Life is too precious to be wasting time relying on past grudges. When times like that come up, I want you to recognize your anger, deal with it and then smile and keep on with life.

2) Love the world even when it hasn't given you anything good in return - Let's be honest, life rarely offers us the ideal life we dream of. That's why it's so important to be grateful about life, even when it hasn't offered us anything to be grateful about but trust me, there will ALWAYS be something to be grateful about. Try writing a diary of gratitude on a daily basis and you'll see what I mean.

3) Value food, water, home and love - Sometimes we aren't grateful enough for what we do have so value them like the treasure they are.

4) Even so, never give up on life - Some dogs experience the cruelest lives any humans can ever imagine but even so, they never give up on life. Even when everything fails them, even in times of hunger and sickness-- they keep on till their last breath. Dogs never EVER give up on life.

5) Enjoy the moment - The best tense to live in is the present. The past is there to help us un-root our present issues and the future is to look forward to but as an awesome quote says the present is the only moment in which we live in. So enjoy it :)

So yeah.. always smile.. always cherrish those delicate and small moments in life. Love the world in the hardships and wag your tail at those that have hurt you. Cheers to Life!! :)

Enter your email address:


Delivered by FeedBurner

Why I Said No To The World & Yes To My Heart

"The more you love your decisions, the less you need others to love them."

Hey guys/gals! Today I'm going to speak about something a bit personal for me but which I'd really love to share with you all anyways. This past winter I hadn't had much trouble balancing my life with my diary, studies, writing and my hobbies during my free days.

It was a nice winter which made me realize how much writing a "to-do-list" before bedtime each day would lift up my productivity and enjoyment of life in general. Then it happened...

My last semester in highschool

As many other seniors, I'm the typical busy girl who has to balance school with after school "work".

(For those of you that don't know, it's not work. It's actually called my practice for Culinary Arts class. It's like if you were working but instead of being an employee you are a volunteer for the business, for a certain amount of hours. Those accumulated hours are a requisite to get my Culinary Arts Diploma and graduate.)

For the sake of simplicity I'll call it CAP (Culinary Arts Practice) from now on. Moving on, my CAP takes out a lot of my time this semester. Heck, I barely have time for my own school studies.

That's when I noticed that I had to delay or let go some of my scheduled tasks I had done up till now and truly listen to my heart. Listen to it well and follow it with trust.

I talked with my family, I talked with my friends, I talked with fellow bloggers and I talked with myself (As silly as it sounds, it works). Most of them disagreed at the decisions I'd take and the pressure was wow, incredible.

Saying No

After much thinking and reflecting I decided to do the one thing I truly wanted: and that was to say no:

I said no  to a prestigious college this year (To be honest it's not in my interests to go anyways.)
I said no to the newspaper (Though I might consider returning during May but I'm not sure.)
I said no to my novel (Delayed)
I said no to some friendships
I said no to fear-based opinions
I said no to the typical way of thinking
I sad no to the world and I said yes to my heart.

Saying Yes

It's not bad to want the things I said no to and I'd openly consider continuing this projects in the near future(and I plan to actually)-- but in the meanwhile, I just want to keep my priorities and time on what truly matters to me in life right now:

I said yes to Basked in Sunshine
I said yes to my Driver's License
I said yes to my hobbies on my spare time
I said yes to new friends
I said yes to waking up early
I said yes to smiling
I said yes to me and what I wanted

It doesn't matter what I want tomorrow. I just want to be open and be on congruence with what I want and what I'm doing today. Saying no isn't easy, but listening to the heart is important and if I ever were to regret my decisions-- then when the time comes, I'll deal with it.

Maybe this way of life isn't the one the wold agrees with, maybe it's hard because you are one person against an entire society, maybe it's a path that a lot of us fear-- but it's when you say no to the world that you can truly be happy... and my purpose in life is to be happy.

In the next part of this series, I'll share with you tips on when it's ok to say no, how to do it and 5 reasons on why the word 'no' holds so much value in certain situations.

To keep up to date with updates sign up to my Facebook, Twitter or simply subscribe to Basked in Sunshine in the form below!

By the way, I'm not right and I'm not wrong. This is simply the path I choose during this moment in life. How about you? What path will you choose?

photo credit: HaoJan via photopin cc

Enter your email address:


Delivered by FeedBurner