I am not sure what good deed I did in another life to somehow end up with such a well-behaved and loving puppy! I honestly feel like I won the puppy lottery! Norey is friendly, doesn’t bark excessively, doesn’t chew up clothing or furniture, is housebroken and comes when called about 90% of the time.  All of this, despite my husband and I being her third owners in the short 6 months she’s been alive. When she was just a few weeks old, Norey wandered into her previous owner, Rachel’s yard. She was underweight and had a broken tail. Rachel nursed her to health and plastered the neighborhood with lost dog signs, but no one ever came to claim her. Rachel trained Norey well and loved her, but being a recent college grad without a full time job, couldn’t afford to keep her. After having her for a few months she selflessly put an ad on Craigslist with the hope of finding a nice permanent home for Norey. About 5 minutes later, my husband responded to the ad and set up a time to go meet her. Within moments of meeting her, we knew that she was the right dog for us. My husband has wanted a dog (or better yet two) for the past several years. I, on the other hand, wanted to wait until the timing was right. When he first started talking about getting a dog, we lived in a condo complex that did not allow dogs. Despite my husband suggesting that we simply ignore the rule, or certify the dog as a service dog in order to negate the rule, I said no. His wanting a dog, and my hesitancy with getting one before the timing was right became a joke among our family. His aunt even purchased dog supplies for him as a Christmas gift last year, with the hope that I would give in…but I stood my ground. In addition to the “no dog” rule, our condo was on the third story and had only a very small balcony of outdoor space. I thought it was mean to raise a dog without any place to run around (and had nightmares of running down three flights of stairs with a dog in order to avoid accidents while trying to house-train it).  My husband ultimately agreed that it would be in our future dog’s best interest to have a yard. Since we purchased a house with a yard a few months ago, the pressure has been strong. My husband was ready, but I wanted to settle in and finish some of our renovation projects before taking the leap into puppy parenthood. As most of the major projects came to a close, I cited our upcoming vacation as a reason to hold off. Once the yard was in place, major renovations done, and vacation over, I decided I was as ready as I’d ever be, and agreed to begin looking. In our many prior conversations about dogs, my husband and I had agreed that we wanted a medium sized dog, we’d prefer to rescue it and we’d love it to be at least part corgi. Little did I know, my husband had alerts set on his phone for corgi puppies months prior, and had yet to see any rescues that fit the criteria. Once I found out about this, the 5 minute response time to Rachel’s ad, giving away a corgi dachshund puppy, made sense. We couldn’t have planned it better if we’d tried. She is the perfect dog for us, and has quickly quelled all of the hesitation that I’d had about getting a puppy. I worried that a puppy would ruin the hard work we’d put into our home and garden, take away the freedom that we’d had to travel or annoy our neighbors by constantly barking when left alone. Thus far, she’s done none of this (knock on wood she doesn’t suddenly pick up these bad habits). Sometimes life hands you a pleasant surprise and makes you realize that all of your worrying has been unwarranted; this was one of those times.  My win is being proven wrong by my new four legged friend.    ...

A few days ago, I spent the afternoon in a quaint mountain town with three of my friends. It was great. We went apple picking and then walked in and out of a few of the unique shops.  A wooden sign in one of these shops caught my attention. It said “someone else is happy with less than what you have.” My first observation was the irony that the shop owners are trying to sell something that says buying things will not make you happy. My win is that I gave this sign a bit more thought and let the message sink in. Instead of walking around the store and making a mental wish list of all of the items I want, I took a moment to think about all that I have to be grateful for, both material and otherwise (all of the cliché stuff crossed my mind…family, friends, health, etc.). Interestingly, taking a moment to focus on things that I often take for granted immediately made me feel calm and content. That feeling led me to think about how powerful this statement can be. Nothing earth-shattering, it’s just a simple reminder to be grateful. This reminder to appreciate our lives, despite the imperfections, is something that we can’t hear often enough. For example, rather than complain about the seemingly constant supply of dust coating the floors of my house, I should be grateful that I have a house to clean. Rather than dreading doing laundry, I should appreciate that I have clothes to wash and running water with which to wash them. Beyond the material things, this sign also made me think about bigger picture of want verse contentment. How is it that some people are never satisfied while others are genuinely happy even in difficult situations? More importantly, how do we shift our perspectives to be more like the latter group? My guess is that it takes practice and conscious effort.  With that in mind, I began brainstorming some ways to get in the habit of gratitude. A few of the ideas that crossed my mind were: Set a daily alarm and spend a moment each time it goes off thinking of something you appreciate Begin keeping a gratitude journal and add at least one thing each night before bed Create a gratitude calendar adding to it each day and recalling what you’ve added on this date in years past. If you begin it today, next October 9th you can see what you wrote today and then add a new item below it. October 9th 2015 you’d read two lines of history and add a third, and so on.  The calendar wouldn’t need to be elaborate. It could be as simple as 365 index cards each marked with a month and day, or a notebook with each page dated with month and day. I think my favorite is the calendar because it allows us to remember people or experiences that have made us happy in the past as well as appreciate those that do in the present. If you’ve got other suggestions please let me know....

My win is making it safely across the country today – thanks to the kindness of Erin, a generous employee of Southwest Airlines! As embarrassing as it is, I showed up at the airport a day before my scheduled flight. Evidently, the email that I saved, thinking it was my flight confirmation, was in fact information about an alternate flight that I’d considered booking, before actually booking a flight for tomorrow! You can imagine my shock when I was informed of this at the ticket counter this afternoon. After pulling up the actual confirmation that listed tomorrow’s date on his phone, and deservedly teasing me a bit about my mistake, my husband was ready to simply go home and return to the airport the next day. I, on the other hand, knew we needed to travel today, since his family had planned a surprise birthday party for him –happening tomorrow. I offered to attempt to find an alternate flight while he waited outside. Once he was out of earshot, I explained my predicament about the surprise party to Erin. She immediately began looking, and after ten minutes of searching three different airports in New England, she was able to find us a flight. Still, two problems remained: there was an $800 price difference, and the new flight was already on its final boarding call. As Erin was explaining this to me, my husband had returned. Understandably, he thought I was crazy for even considering this alternative when we “had no plans for tomorrow” and could easily just take our scheduled flight. At this point, I had no choice but to admit to him that we did have plans for tomorrow. With my husband in agreement, and no time to spare, Erin took action. She changed our reservation, rushed our bags, escorted us to the front of the security line, and even somehow waived the difference in cost. I am grateful for, and impressed by, her willingness to go above and beyond to help us! Erin could have easily reminded me that it was my mistake and sent me home. Instead, she went out of her way to help get my husband and I on board. Erin’s actions have made me a Southwest customer for life. I have also learned my lesson about “saving” a flight I am considering booking.  Word to the wise, don’t do it, or you just might end up at the airport on the wrong...