People and their rituals.  They cling to things so hard sometimes.

Garth Stein, The Art of Racing in the Rain

Have you read this book?  I highly recommend it.

It’s about one family’s life and struggles told by the family dog.  The dog, Enzo, narrates the drama that is his owners life with dashes of his own hopes and dreams.  He’s convinced if he’s a good enough dog he will be reborn in the form he truly belongs, a human.

Started it early 2015 and just now finishing it.  It took me so long to read it because I started it shortly after we had to let our own pup go.  Silly me…

This one hit me hard.

We do cling.  We grasp.  We clutch at the things we think we need to keep us safe, sane… happy.  Sometimes, it’s not all about us.

There’s a time for you and a time to let go.  Learning where that line is and when you should cross it is the difficult part.

And… once you draw that line crossing isn’t always easy.

I thought I mentally prepared to let my pup go in 2014.  As he aged, I told him if he needed to, he could go.  I wouldn’t make him stay.  I’d lay with him on the floor, pet his head and tell him it was ok.

Then, when the day came that we absolutely let him go (it happened so suddenly), and it wasn’t ok.  I didn’t want to.  I knew I needed to.  My boyfriend and I did let him go and it was like a truck hit us.

But he knew.  Looking back I think I could see it in his eyes.  And I was clinging.  Clinging to the rituals that we had repeated day in and day out…

People and their rituals. They cling to things so hard sometimes.

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