The God Whisperer

I may or may not have addicted my child to Cesar Millan.  I'm not sure if a person can actually addict another person to another thing, but if it can be done, I have succeeded beyond what I might have dared hope for had I known to hope for it.

Cesar (I'm sure we'd be on a first-name basis) is the Dog Whisperer.  He uses his energy and understanding of dogs to rehabilitate them and then uses his saucy mexican accent and disarming (newly-veneered in Season 3 I think) smile to train the dog's people to stop being morons.  It is quite remarkable and TBird and I tune in almost every day while I fold laundry and the boy sleeps.

Cesar has taught me almost every new thing I've thought about parenting in the last year. Mostly the parts where what we give is generally what we get back and where what we think is going to happen is most often what ends up happening.  Choosing to be Calm and Assertive like that wiley dog whisperer is almost always my best choice when managing small brains in small people hell-bent on freaking the fuck out.  What? Oh right. Less swearing.  I mean, small people busy being wholly themselves.

Yesterday, a poor woman described how her Great Dane had nearly killed her.  They had been walking on a trail along a precipice and her dog saw another dog ahead.  Obviously not-yet-whispered, her dog lunged after the interloper and the owner described how she had to decide about whether to let the dog go and perhaps witness its tumbling into eternity, or hold on but risk her own demise. 

Cesar smiled and nodded through the story and then said (insert saucy mexican accent here): "But the dog did not ask you to be afraid.  The dog does not say 'now I will make you angry' or 'now I want you to fear'.  The dog just was a dog. You chose the fear."

Now had it been me tethered to a Great Dane on a ledge, I'd probably have had some words for Mr. Millan and his 'you chose fear' mumbo-jumbo.  But it wasn't me there - I was tucked on the couch with my awesome four-year-old pondering as ever why life is so difficult. 

And what I ended up hearing instead is something like, Quit choosing the fear.  Quit choosing the angry. Life is not asking you to choose those things. Life is just being Life.  Choose more Life.

So now I'm reading "One Thousand Gifts" because Heidi asked me to, and I'm wondering if maybe this season is going to bring a few more opportunities to choose Less Fear, Less Anger, Less Less.  I wonder if that's what was being whispered.  I tried it out tonight and it was kind of spooky.  I tried giving less anger away and ended up with more peace.  Go figure.

I wonder if the Lord has a Mexican accent?