When you’re living life a breakneck speed, with five different goals and 35 things to do to reach each one, it’s easy to freak out when something goes wrong. One plate starts wobbling, threatening to fall, and we immediately throw all the rest in the air because OHMYGODICAN’TKEEPTHISUPWITHTHISKINDOFFAILUREI’MJUSTGOINGTOQUIT.
Sometimes, though, it helps to just not freak out. Along with new songs, book launches, tours and daily deadlines, one of the things we’ve been working on at our house is getting our dog Lois used to being good while she’s by herself at home. She has a cage, but setting it up and putting it away is a pain, so life will be a lot easier when our giant baby can just be good. She’s been doing OK, only really chewing things up when we’ve left them out, but today Mike and I came home from a quick workout and she instantly cowered, like she had been naughty.
On the couch where she’s been sitting: Mike’s new dress shoe. We didn’t have time for this. Mike needed to leave for a gig, I was way behind on work, and we super don’t want to have to go buy new dress shoes SOITISGOINGTOBEAPROBLEMIFLOISCAN’TJUSTLEARNTOBEAGOODGIRLFORAFREAKINGHOURONCEINAWHILE.
But we didn’t freak out. We noticed, rather quickly, that Lois had, in fact, picked up Mike’s fancy shoe so she could cuddle with it, and there wasn’t a scratch on it. Which isn’t half as naughty as it is totally adorable. No new shoe needed; Mike is on time for his gig; I’m already back to work.
Even if the shoe had been ruined – or even when a source flakes out on an interview, or gig gets cancelled or a deadline is missed – it only hurts the 34 other spinning plates to freak out when one wobbled. And sometimes, it only looks like it’s wobbling anyway.
Natalie Burg 