Member-only story

How My Dog Teaches Me To Be More Present By Being

Have you ever watched your animals wake up in the morning?

Sara Burdick
5 min readMay 13, 2022
Photo by jean wimmerlin on Unsplash

Until a few weeks ago, I never noticed Eris when she woke up. Usually, her nose was affixed to my face, and she wanted me to get up.

Not to let her out, but to be up. We sleep in; we are not morning creatures. If I am up before 7, she does not stir; she sleeps until eight and slowly starts her day.

A very cold night!

She has a routine. She wakes up and does a downward dog stretch, then lifts each of her legs to stretch out her body. Then she goes outside for the bathroom, eats her breakfast, and goes back out.

Lately, she has not been exploring due to the rain, but if there is no rain, she goes for a short walk and comes back, and her job of keeping me company while I work.

Not spanish again! I speak dog.

So I started thinking animals know what to do; they do not overthink. Should I stretch this morning? No, she does it. She does not think, I am not ready for my day to begin; she…

--

--

Sara Burdick
Sara Burdick

Written by Sara Burdick

I quit the rat race after working as a nurse for 16 years. Travel and Storyteller. I live in Colombia. https://substack.com/@saraburdick

Responses (30)