By: Amelia Glynn
This appeared on sfgate.com, see link
I have to admit that I rolled my eyes when I ripped open the envelope from St. Martin’s Press that arrived over the weekend and pulled out my complimentary copy of Affirmations: Meditations for Your Dog.
Great, I thought. Another gimmicky animal book. Just what the world needs.
But after grudgingly flipping through a few pages, I realized I was SMILING, and I started to change my mind. Maybe this is exactly what we need.
I don’t know about you, but watching my savings evaporate in the stock market and listening to more than a few friends talk about the very real possibility of losing their jobs has given me an epic case of the blues. So, while we’re all waiting for that shiny new stimulus package to kick in, what better antidote for malaise than adorable animals pics and some feel-good fluffy prose?
Arffirmations are peppered with over-the-top cute black-and-white photographs and reads like a “don’t-sweat-the-small-stuff” guide for dog lovers. A canine “Zen master” comically narrates a plethora of meditations that cleverly “arffirm” all things dog-like, from eating garbage and burying bones to barking at the UPS guy and lounging on the sofa.
Here are three of my favorites:
“I am perfect even if I did eat that muffin somebody dropped near the dumpster.” I am an omnivore. Nothing edible is alien to me. The ice cream that has fallen on the sidewalk, the Cheerios some toddler has spilled along the way, the French fries cast upon a parking lot — most of which maybe a car has run over — are all fit sustenance for me. I desire to consume everything not nailed down because I am free and my appetite is as large as the universe.
“I unite two worlds when I bury things and then dig them up and rebury them in the sofa.” I live inside, yes. But I go outside because I am an animal. I am part of Nature — and Nature is outside. Thus, inside and outside come together in me. When I take something from inside outside and then bring it back inside with little pieces of outside on it, I am expressing fully the totality of my being. I am wonderous. I am Yin and Yang. Sitting on the sofa eating a dirt-encrusted cookie, I am Whole.
“I whine when you leave the house because I know how much you will miss me.” Why do I whimper every single time you walk out the door, even just to get the paper? It is because I am blessed with empathic sensitivity. I know, even before you leave, how much you will wish you were back home, glorying in the magnificence that is I. It is only natural and fitting that you feel this way. I know, as you know, that I am the cutest thing in the universe. I combine adorableness and genius. If I were not myself, I would miss me too.
What does your pet do that makes you smile?
