Life Is Messy

Life is messy. It's so true. Nobody's life is perfect, even if social media tries to tell you otherwise. We're surrounded by staged perfection. Almost none of what we see online is real, people pick the most attractive and appealing moments of their life to post for the world to see. For instance, the other day I saw an Instagram post of a couple and their two small children–a toddler, and an infant. Everyone was in white, the furniture in the room was all white, the decor was white, carpeting was white, etc. I was blown away by how unrealistic it was. No parents in their right mind would have all white everything with little kids around. It was painfully obvious that this photo was staged. And yet, this is the kind of thing that we all compare our own lives to.

We're all awkward, odd, different. We need to stop trying to fit into a cookie cutter, and take pride in our own individuality. Nobody can be you as well as you can, and you can't be someone else. You're already the person you're meant to be.

I want to try to be open and share the weirdness of life, so here's my start. I'm one of those people that is obsessed with my dogs. They're ridiculous and sweet, sassy and obnoxious. I love them to death. I love to post photos of my dogs, of course. But what those photos don't show are the things that make me crazy.

Ollie barks ALL of the time. Squirrel? Bark. Car door? Bark. Person walking? Bark. I leave the TV on when I'm not home, in hopes the background noise will prevent him from barking at EVERYTHING. When we go on walks, he barks at anyone we encounter. It's actually pretty embarrassing. He truly loves other people and dogs, but you wouldn't know it from the way he sounds. He acts like he wants to eat them for lunch.

He consumes almost every toy we buy for him, but he has a sensitive stomach...so then he pukes it back up. One night, Ren was at the gym and I was happily binging yet another episode of Top Chef. Out of nowhere, I heard the telltale sounds of a canine about to upchuck. With the speed of Supergirl, I sprang from my designated couch corner, and sprinted for the back door. We've trained him to  beeline for the back door himself, but this time he had different plans. Yep, he stopped in the dining room, stared into my eyes, and puked up the remnants of some poor, stuffed lion that never stood a chance in our home. It was only after making a mess inside the house that he decided he needed to go outside, and proceeded to the door. Delightful.

A literal messy moment in my day. I thought that I had trained my dog so well, I had all of the confidence in the world that he would do what he was supposed to, but he threw all of his training back in my face. And sure, there are many other things that make my life messy, bigger things. I thought this would just be a lovely, and disgusting way to start. And no, I did not take a photo of him in that moment. You're welcome. Instead, I present to you, multiple photos of Oliver looking like a doofus:

In the mean time, let's embrace our imperfection, rather than striving for the impossible.

Always,

Jaci