Lessons from Branston

lesson one: An old dog can teach his owner new tricks!

i’ve been watching Branston’s behaviour since we arrived in Wales in December. He’s like a dog who’s arrived in doggy heaven with a free pass to access all areas. From morning until bedtime, when he goes over to Nanny’s woodland home to snuggle up for the night, he’s the happiest dog alive. And he’s taught me a wonderful lesson that’s changing my approach to every day.

each morning seems to start the same way; John collects Branston from his mum’s static caravan and hears about how good/cheeky/funny he’s been, then Branston walks carefully past the car, almost as if to say ‘please don’t notice the car or we might drive away from all this’ then bounds into our kitchen & runs around like a puppy.

Through the day he’ll run up & down our field around 40 times, do a thorough search (sniff) of ‘his’ woodland at least three times, bark at and play with at least of couple of dogs who come through to do the forest walk and eat for Wales too! He is, as you can imagine, sleeping well.

what he’s shown me is that he treats every day as though he might wake up to orrow and have to get in the car and go back to our old home. He squeezes every experience he can into his hours and never misses the chance to try something new or meet a new friend. He’s made it clear to me that I had not been living this way.

sure, I’ve always been a “liver” not simply a survivor. I like to think I’m a risk taker and someone who feels the fear and does it anyway; what I wasn’t doing was enjoying the moment. Allowing myself to be fully present in the day and not spend my time on the ‘I should be doing…’ Moments.

So I say thank you Branston for the lesson. When did you last watch your animal’s behaviour? They’ve got some great tricks to teach us.