Five Seasons Women’s Wellness: Health and Wellness Blog

On a more personal note…Some of my patients may know that beyond being an acupuncturist and herbalist, I am an amateur dog trainer and compete in agility with my border collie Piper.

Last weekend, I competed with Piper at an AKC agility trial in Ridgefield, WA. After our runs, I was a little disappointed. We made a few mistakes and didn’t qualify. I was discouraged that I didn’t have anything to show for all of my hard work. After a long day, I drove home tired and a little deflated.

Piper running with full abandon

The next morning, I loaded the video of our runs onto my computer to see what our problems were. Watching the video of Piper in action overwhelmed me with a deep sense of gratitude. Our runs were beautiful, even with our novice mistakes. I was so grateful that such an amazing and talented dog could find such joy in running with me and playing my game of agility.

I can’t believe that I ever felt even the slightest tinge of disappointment in her and myself. I have always known that agility is about the fun of it, not titles or awards, but for a moment I lost sight of that.

This experience reminded me of how important it is to find joy and gratitude in your life, even when things do not go as you plan. I could have held on to my disappointment, eventually transforming it into bitterness and regret, but instead my heart is filled with thankfulness for life and all of its opportunities.

This morning, I was reading Susan Garrett’s blog, and the entry Lessons in Gratitude struck me. Susan is a world-class agility competitor and a truly marvelous dog trainer, and I think she owes that in part to her ability to focus on the positive. Reading her thoughts inspired me to share my own.

Here are a few quotes she shared:

“Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos into order, confusion into clarity…. It turns problems into gifts, failures into success, the unexpected into perfect timing, and mistakes into important events. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow.” ~Melody Beattie

“When we choose not to focus on what is missing from our lives but are grateful for the abundance that’s present…. we experience heaven on earth.” ~Sarah Breathnach

“Life is not about waiting for the storms to pass…it’s about learning to dance in the rain!” ~Vivian Greene

“At times when our own light goes out, it is rekindled by a spark from another person.  Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us.” ~Albert Schweitzer

Today I am grateful that my life is abundant and my heart found its way back to gratitude.

Be Well!

Ariel Solomon, L.Ac.

Ariel and Piper in Action

Susan Garrett’s Blog: Lessons in Gratitude