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Meanderings from Jean's Desk....
Blog Archive 
June 3, 2013: Uncovering More Paradoxes
May 15, 2013: Seeing Those Around Us
May 1, 2013: Scarcity or Abundance: Choose
April 15, 2013: Being Where You Are!
April 1, 2013: Leadership Is Being Vulnerable
March 15, 2013: Leadership and Shedding Skin
Feb 17, 2013: Leadership Isn't Always Romantic
Dec 15, 2012: The Space Between The Notes
Nov 1, 2012: The Ostrich Effect
Oct 15, 2012: Who Are You Being When You Are Doing Your Life?
Oct 1, 2012: Constructive Interaction
Video
2009 Kenosha Business of the Year:
LMI Packaging Solutions, Inc.
Though I May Not Be Gracious I Want Attention Too!
One thing about writing a blog for nearly a year and a half is that I am not sure if I am telling the same story over and over again. If that is the case today, please shut your eyes, and enjoy a brief respite from email overload. Then hit the close button.
I have a dog. She is a Golden Doodle. That means gentle as a Golden Retriever and smart as a poodle, with the unique benefit of no shedding. I think she is quite perfect though my family tells me relentlessly that she is needy.
Every day I try to take Sweetie for a three mile walk. Inevitably, somewhere on our path along the lake someone will shout out “Nice dog!” And just as inevitably my monkey mind responds within my head, “What about me!” I continue to be amazed at how attentive people are to dogs and not so much to other people.
On one particularly crisp morning as I was walking down the sidewalk along a row of beautiful historic mansions, feeling really great about the day, a car drove by and the man driving it shouted out “Great dog!” Again, I was feeling really good about myself at that point and when that happens I tend to express myself very easily. Before I could stop it I gave my monkey mind a voice by shouting back “What about me!” I suppose if the day wasn’t quite so great I would have used an expletive at the end of that sentence.
With that harmless little comment I proceeded on my walk feeling quite proud of myself for being fully expressed though I knew there was false courage in the fact that I didn’t think he could hear me.
As we continued our walk, about a block up, I noticed a car parked in the winding driveway of one of the mansions, the driver sitting in it, I imagined talking on his cell. As we got closer I noticed that the man in the car was leaning out the window looking at Sweetie and me, smiling. To my horror it was the man in the car who had just passed us. When we got closer he said, “The mother is not so bad, herself!”
I was speechless, and he laughed, and left. As I continued my walk I began to think, “Of all the nerve, that he would call me the dog’s mother.” Completely missing the fact that he had done exactly what I thought people should do, spend more time noticing other people, and less time noticing dogs. But I proceeded to judge the way he did it and started to see why I don’t get as much attention as Sweetie.
When people pet Sweetie she closes her eyes, wags her tail, and looks like she is in ecstasy. HMMMM what else can I learn from my dog today?
