Controlling the Uncontrollable

Jody Agard • Oct 01, 2021

I’m an early riser, even on the weekends. I had gotten up at 6am and I took the dogs out to go potty and then crawled back into bed to try to go back to sleep.

Just as I closed my eyes though, the birds sitting in the oak tree outside our bedroom window began squawking and the birds below on the ground joined in.

Which then triggered my dog Peanut to awake from his slumber, he stretched and shook his body making his ears flap loudly. He repeated this a few times.

I was snuggling my five-pound Chihuahua, Yoda in my arms and he suddenly began stretching his feet out and kicking me.

I was so annoyed.

I just wanted to go back to sleep.

Just then though, I realized I was choosing to be annoyed rather than accepting what was.

In my resistance to the moment, in my wishing it were quiet, in my wanting my dogs to go back to sleep, I was causing my own suffering.

Birds chirp.

Dogs stretch.

Dogs flap their ears.

That’s life.

It wasn’t these things causing my pain, or my annoyance.

It was my beliefs and perception about these things that caused me to be upset. It was my attachment to what I thought my morning was going to look like.

And, it was my attempt to control the environment around me.

The more I clung to the idea that everyone "should" go back to sleep, the more I became annoyed.

But that was my choice. I was choosing annoyance instead of peace in that moment.

Whether its birds chirping or needy dogs, we cannot control the uncontrollable.

We can though, deliberately choose peace.

The second that I accepted the present moment exactly as it was without wishing it were any different, that annoyance shifted to peace. And that peace shifted to love and appreciation for my dogs and the birds singing their glorious morning songs.

Living intentionally is about intentionally living while unintentional things happen.

Big or small.

Its not about controlling the people (or the pets) around us.

Its about standing in peace amidst life as it is.

Jody

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