Life Notes with Sheldon
Life Notes with Sheldon
Springtime Renewal: Lessons from Molly the Dog
What can a loyal dog, a 97-year-old grandmother, and the changing seasons of New Mexico teach us about living our best lives? As it turns out, quite a lot.
Springtime represents more than just warmer weather and blooming flowers—it symbolizes opportunity for personal renewal. After months of winter's metaphorical dormancy, this episode explores how we can experience our own rebirth alongside nature's awakening.
Through heartwarming stories about his dog Molly, Sheldon reveals profound life lessons hiding in plain sight: the value of living fully in each moment, showing compassionate presence without trying to fix everything, and perhaps most importantly, not holding onto grudges. "She'll soak for a bit, but then she forgets about it, she moves on," Sheldon observes—a simple yet transformative approach to life's inevitable disappointments.
The wisdom continues with Sheldon's 97-year-old grandmother Verda, whose secret to longevity is refreshingly straightforward: "I just never quit. My friends that sat down, they never got back up." Her philosophy underscores our fundamental human need to feel useful and engaged, regardless of age. This connects beautifully with one of the episode's core messages—that finding happiness often comes through serving others and maintaining purpose.
Perhaps the most touching moment comes when Sheldon describes dropping everything to spend an afternoon bike riding with his son at Berg Park—a decision that created "one of the best afternoons of my entire life." This spontaneous adventure reminds us that our most treasured memories often come from fully present, undistracted time with those we love.
As spring unfolds around you, take this opportunity to shed what weighs you down. Stop taking things personally, let go of petty grievances, and embrace what a friend facing terminal cancer called "the opportunity of the day." Your renewal awaits—will you accept the invitation?
Welcome to Life Notes with Sheldon, where we talk about ways to get off the sidelines and back into the game of life as your best you.
Speaker 1:Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, good night. Friends, wherever it is, wherever you're listening, thank you for tuning on, tuning in to Life Notes with Sheldon, where we talk about ways to get you off the sidelines and back into the game of life as your very best self. And what a great time to think about that. Then springtime I love springtime, you know, from as long as I can remember I always felt like a piece of me kind of died in the winter and the late fall and when New Mexico, where we live, it gets really gray and kind of barren looking in the winter and when there's no moisture it just is dry and it can be a little depressing. I found beauty in it. Still Took me a long time to figure out why they called it the land of enchantment. Growing up, like many here, I thought it was kind of the land of entrapment, couldn't wait to get out. I love New Mexico.
Speaker 1:You know I used to take my great uncle, bill Wells. He was a mentor to me, a dear friend, dear dear friend and mentor, and I was the one designated by him to take him to the heart hospital to routinely adjust his peacemaker, as he called it. This was an old World War II guy who that generation? He just said things, not just like they were, but he said things pretty much however he'd like to say them. And the man had a name for everything and it was not a traditional name, it was a thingamawachi or something. There was always some funny name for something and a funny name for people too Quite funny names for people he didn't really think too much of. But you know something he used to say and it didn't really stick with me. You know 19, 21 year old kid. I'm driving him to Albuquerque. You know thinking about things, not usually what he's talking about. I'm taking the stories, but you know your brain is really active and and thinking about other things at that age and it didn't stick with me. But the older I got, the more I took him, the more it sawed in.
Speaker 1:And now when I find myself driving to Albuquerque with friends or family, I say the same thing almost every time. But this is what he said. He said he'd take a minute and he'd get silent. He'd say Sheldon, you know what is so amazing about New Mexico? And I would say no, bill, what? Like I hadn't heard it. Every single time we've taken the trip on the way and the way back. I would just say no, what is? And this is what he said. He said New Mexico is the only place, I think, in the world where you can drive straight for 20 minutes and every 20 minutes you have a completely different scenery and a beautiful one. And now, when I drive to Albuquerque, when I drive back, I think of that. You know, every 20 minutes there is a new beautiful scene to look on and it is beautiful. It has an incredible texture, the colors of New Mexico.
Speaker 1:There's lots to appreciate here, but especially in the springtime, because we come out of this time that's been barren and gray and brown and foreboding, into the beautiful spring, the desert when it blossoms like a rose at times. It's truly a beautiful valley that we live in, and you know, as I'm thinking about this today, valley that we live in, and you know, as I'm thinking about this today, despite my severe allergies this year, I'm so grateful for springtime and I think there's something very symbolic of springtime as we celebrate the Easter season, and so many cultures and traditions recognize it as a period of rebirth and re-energizing, and you know, we could value instilling some of that in our own lives, looking into this time as a rebirth for us. You know we've come out of a winter that has been cold at times, it's been very dry, and you know our body needs the vitamins from the sun and it needs the fresh air and it needs nature. It needs to be out among other people. We have those needs and let's give our body what it needs Get out and get some sunshine. I love going to Berg Park. It's a beautiful riverwalk park.
Speaker 1:I go almost every day and almost every day I take my dog, molly, my faithful female canine companion. Molly, she's right here, actually right below the desk. She comes with me almost everywhere I go, from the bank to work to Home Depot. She has at times I put her in the cart and push her around, even taking her to Walmart a time or two. She goes almost everywhere with me when we travel she usually goes as well. She's the best dog in the world. She really is. Now. I know what you're thinking. Well, she's the best dog in the world. She really is. Now. I know what you're thinking. No, wait, I have the best dog in the world. Everybody thinks they have the best dog in the world. But I go to Berg Park and people know Molly by name. She is the best walker, obedient, good, and you know she goes off the trail to go use the bathroom. She's courteous of others, she's respectful, but she is loving.
Speaker 1:You know I had a friend that would go out to Cranes Roost to kind of minister and visit with the people out there. It's an elderly care facility in Aztec and on occasion he'd invite me to go out there and bring my keyboard and play some music for them out there. And so I would. And I brought Molly with me and they welcomed her inside. She ended up on this easy chair, on this recliner, sitting next to this elderly lady right there, almost in her lap, and that lady loved it, they loved her. And it's so interesting, she's a compassionate care dog because you know she's always by me. I'm kind of a gravitate towards her, she gravitates towards me, but when my wife is sick or not feeling well, she is right by her feet. Same thing with our kids and man. If anyone ever tries to intimidate or threaten, she's right there, barking and defending, letting us know she's there. She is an amazing, amazing, amazing dog and I'm so grateful for this little friend I have. And aren't you grateful for the canine companion maybe that you have in your life, aren't they wonderful?
Speaker 1:I think God just knew that life was going to be challenging at times, so he gave us dogs and gave us nature and gave us the wonderful things that we enjoy in spring. So how are we going to do this rebirth of ourselves? Well, let's get out in nature and let's get social again. You know, I feel like in the winter we kind of huddle in our homes and it's almost like a COVID type situation where we are all separated from each other and, uh, you know, we go from our car and hurry into the store to avoid the cold and the wind. Let's get out there and, as soon as we can, have a backyard barbecue. Invite friends, invite neighbors, invite whoever, invite them in and build that community around you. Invite your friends over for dinner, invite your family. Go and visit, go and do. It's so essential that we have that support system, that building of culture and family and strengthening, and it's essential not just for our physical health but our mental and spiritual as well. So go out and invite others into your life. Find a way to go out in the community and serve. Maybe you have an elderly gentleman next door or someone who's a widow. Go and do some yard work for them. Get your family out, get your kids involved, get out and enjoy springtime, go walk, go ride bikes.
Speaker 1:You know my son six, barely seven years old, and he begged me the other day. He said, dad, will you please take my training wheels off? And I put him off. I said, yeah, I will, but just not right now. I was making dinner, there were these other things going on. Day three, I still hadn't done it, and so my mom, his grandma Sharon, comes down and he looks at her and says, graham, graham, will you take my training wheels off? With those eyes, those pleading eyes. And of course she went and did it. Well, he zooms off, and let me just preface this what happened last year was we tried to take the training wheels off and it didn't go so well. Right, he got really scared, had another fall and threw his bike down and was like I'm not doing this, and so it was all, you're not doing it. And then, all of a and lo and behold, he was fully training wheel free All those times that we practiced. You know, somehow it just set in that time and she got that first look of him going down the road by himself, and I'm glad for it I am. But I had this pang of sadness, you know, in my heart, just a little bit, of the fact that I missed out on coming through for him on that.
Speaker 1:Well, that night he was so excited about riding his bike by himself that he said, dad, we should go ride bikes tomorrow at Berg Park. You should check me out of school. And of course I gave the parent response of well, we'll see, son, we'll see, let's see what's going on. So the day was encroaching upon my opportunity to do this. It was pushing one, pushing 130. Finally I dropped everything, ran out of the office, zoomed off to his school and picked him up just a little before two, maybe 145-ish. He said, dad, what are we doing? I said we're riding bikes. So we went and got the bikes, we went and got them aired up and ready and we went to Berg Park and it was one of the best afternoons of my entire life.
Speaker 1:I can honestly tell you that, watching him ride his bike and have so much fun down there out in nature, a place we used to go to ride bikes often during the pandemic it was just amazing. And having that one-on-one time with him, watching him do something he loved, was priceless. We went to the river nature center and he bought a little, a little rock candy and some rocks and we played in this little miniature river thing to look at sediments and learn a little bit about it. And then there was this microscope you could look in and look at plant life and bugs and things that were found right there in the river park. And we looked through the microscopes. We looked at the gift shop and then we rode and we rode over to the animal shelter and we looked at the dogs shop and then we rode and we rode over to the animal shelter and we looked at the dogs and then we rode back and we rode around and he wanted to ride forever, didn't get tired, went every direction and it was amazing.
Speaker 1:No phone, no stupidity, no distractions, no distractions in my head. I tried to stay out of my head and just be like be there with him in the moment and I have this video of him zooming down the cobblestone onto the dirt and it's about a minute and 20 minutes and 20 seconds of footage of him pedaling like crazy. I mean it's like the movie ET where he pedals and goes into the sky. He was pedaling and that's kind of my son's personality. You know he is an all in full throttle kind of person in life and I learned a lot from him. You know some of the fears and hesitancies that I had at his age. He doesn't have any of those and I admire him so much for it and I wish that. You know, at his age I had that a little more, but it was just so fun, it was so great. So, you know, as we approach this time springtime, and these opportunities to get out, one thing I want to challenge you to is not miss the opportunities when your kid or your grandkid or neighbor or niece or nephew says, hey, let's go do this, go and do it with them. Friends, go and make those memories when you get the chance, because we never know when we won't have that chance again ever, and springtime is a great time for that.
Speaker 1:You know, my dog, molly, teaches me a lot about life and a lot about, you know, getting up again when life is hard. Uh, she wakes up happy in the morning. She wakes, wakes up ready to go wherever we're going. She's ready to go right along. And you know, every day it's like she wakes up to, and then life is another miracle. You know, hopefully she'll get that ball thrown to her and and she just looks forward to the day and she goes and rolls with the punches and rolls along with people and she's friendly, she is interested in others. When we go to the park, she looks around and she sniffs and she finds interested in others. When we go to the park, she looks around and she sniffs and she finds and she explores and she's interested in others.
Speaker 1:She's compassionate, she takes time to be with people in their pain and to just be there in the moment with them. You know, so many times I find myself wanting to fix the situation and wanting to. You know, well, let's go make soup for them, let's go do this, let's act, act, act. And she has a way of just sitting and being with those who are mourning, who are suffering, who are sick. And there's something about that, friends, because of all the gifts that we can give, the gift of quality time not necessarily quantity, quality time it really is the most precious gift just to be with a person in their grief, in their trouble and in their joy, just to be in that moment with them and Molly teaches me that. You know Molly is excited about anything that's meat.
Speaker 1:If we go to the bank and they give her a doggy treat and it's one of those, you know, processed ones, she will not even touch it, won't even look at it. She's a USDA certified grass beef, grass fed. You know lean meat kind of girl. She wants it if it's meat. She eats healthy, you know, and she always has energy and you know she teaches me about eating healthy and you know saying no to the junk. And this dog has more energy. You would not believe how she chases that ball.
Speaker 1:And it's a funny little experience about how Molly, you know, became or found out she was a retriever. I don't know how exactly it happened, but we'd go to my brother's brother-in-law's house and he had this lab mix dog and I tell you what it was so annoying because the dog never wanted to be petted, it never wanted to just hang out with you. It was constantly obsessed with fetching and she'd get so out of energy fetching that she'd just be panting all the time with her tongue hanging out like all the time right in your face slobbering on you. And it was so annoying. And I came home and I'm like Mandy isn't it great that Molly isn't like that, isn't it great that she'll just sit and be with people and that she's calm? And it was like three weeks to the day of that that she found out her fetching mechanism.
Speaker 1:We tried to teach her before, and now she gets into this trance where there is nothing but the ball and you are not a person anymore, you are an object to throw the ball. And she gets in this trance. And when she's not in the trance it's wonderful to be with her. But when she's in the trance it's all about throwing the ball. And so we throw the ball and she fetches it and she runs and runs, and runs. And it's been great because when it comes baseball season and I'm practicing with the kids out in the front yard, she will retrieve every ball that's hit and every ball that is missed from being thrown. She's like having a professional catcher and retriever at wherever you're practicing baseball, you know. So she finds happiness in helping and being useful, and maybe she doesn't know she's being useful.
Speaker 1:But one of the key ways that we can find happiness in our lives is by finding ways to be useful to others and finding ways to contribute as people become elderly and tend to retreat more, sometimes into their houses, into their personal space. There's something that they really miss is what I've visited with others, and it's that feeling that they are useful, feeling that they are needed. It's a basic human need we all have. So get out there and be a part of something, get out there and contribute to something. Get out there and give to someone of yourself. Go catch the balls and go send them back. Go volunteer on your little league, go do something and go be productive and go give to others and be needed.
Speaker 1:You know, I had a friend who worked in a behavioral health unit and he used to always say this to people and I remember you know some key things that he taught, but this was one of them. He says if you retire and you don't have anything to do and no plan and no purpose, you basically go home to die. And he says that's what happens largely and gave some statistics to support it. And so you know, when we retire, when we quit our job, when we think we have to have a focus, we have to have something, and it's not necessarily work. Maybe it's a cause, maybe travel is your thing, but have those plans and look forward to them. And so, as we start spring, it's a great time to look forward to and plan our summer, plan our fall, look ahead to some things that you want to do.
Speaker 1:And the great thing about where we live in this area is you don't have to hop on an airplane to get somewhere amazing. We're within just a matter of minutes, in some cases and hours, of seeing amazing natural arches, amazing natural wonders, amazing caves. We're able to go to a land called Bistai where it looks like you're on the face of the moon or on the face of another planet. There are so many things to explore right here in our area. We have bike trails, atv trails. We have a thriving, beautiful downtown with great restaurants, thanks to our city leadership and planners, who have done an incredible job of making this community a hub that's drawing people in and that creates fun and activity and things. And so you know, if you're not involved with the church, there's some great churches in our area, some great, thriving communities where you know you could find a home, you could find some family. There's great opportunities to volunteer at our museums. There's amazing parks, amazing parks and get out there and enjoy, get out there and be.
Speaker 1:You know Molly teaches me something else. She tends to get over things quickly. You know, if we have to scold her for something or discipline her for something or teach her something, she'll soak for a bit, but then she forgets about it, she moves on. You know, if perhaps the door got shut and got on her paw or got caught in her tail which has happened very rarely, yeah, she doesn't like it and yeah it hurts, but then she gets over it and she moves on.
Speaker 1:And you know, my grandmother, verda Fouts, who's going to be 97 years old the end of this month, has taught me something powerful. You know she's a lady who is generally happy, generally engaged, always doing something productive, always helping others. And and you know she's a lady who is generally happy, generally engaged, always doing something productive, always helping others. And you know people ask her how are you 97 and still driving and still walking and still cooking and doing these independent things? And she says this she says I just never quit. You know my friends that quit and they sat down. They never got back up. She would say that. And sure enough, as they died off one by one, decades before her, it proved to be true, and so, once again, I'll just repeat it. She says I just, I just never quit. You know, if you go home and sit down, you go home to die. And so that was a powerful thing that I learned from her.
Speaker 1:You have to have a cause, you have to stay active and you have to have a reason to live and a purpose. And one of the ways that she did that is by, you know, teaching me something. When I was sad, when maybe I felt slighted by someone, she'd say well, you need to get over it, you need to move on, because that's the way you find happiness, that's the way you find purpose, not holding onto things. You know, if someone is abusive, if someone is pathological, if there's a thing where it keeps happening and it's chronic, yeah, get offended and get worried about it and get out if you have to. But I mean from the day to day slides that happen from being in a marriage, in a family, in a community, in a church, in a school, in a workplace, wherever you are. We just have to get over some things. And the biggest hurdle that we have to get over, friends, is ourselves and our stinking egos that create so much trouble and so much havoc in our lives. You know, what are you holding on to right now?
Speaker 1:You know I watch people as maybe someone pulls in front of them or someone doesn't go right away at the light and they are full throttle on the horn, they're yelling, they're sending up finger symbols to let them know that they think that person is number one. You know, anytime I get flipped off in a car, I just kind of I just make a joke of it. I'm like kids. Did you see that they think I'm number one? Gosh, well, I bet they're number one too. You know, this is great.
Speaker 1:I love the positivity. You know we have to kind of change our paradigm and it's not just a one-time paradigm change, it's an everyday finding the positive, finding the light, finding the joy and not taking things too far in a fence. Right, people are going to hurt us, people are going to use us, people will let us down and you know what? Nine times out of 10, I found it's not because they mean to, it's not because they're cruel, it's because they have too much on their plate, it's because they forgot, it's because maybe their life is a wreck that week and we didn't know about it.
Speaker 1:So give grace and, like grandma Verda said, just get over it and move on. Get over it and move on. Get over it and move on, because if we hold on to those things, if we hold on to rancor, if we hold on to hate, if we hold on to regret or envy or worry those things that we hold on to drag us down, friends, they really do it. We can't swim in life if we're dragged down and we lose our buoyancy because we're holding on to weights that drag us down, weights of regret, weights of anger, weights of feeling offended, weights of being unforgiving. So get over it and move on.
Speaker 1:Whatever happens in life, don't take it personally. Don't take it personally, because so much of the drama and the toxicity and the problems that we have in life come specifically and accurately and completely, in so many ways, from us taking things personally. Now, that's something I robbed from the four agreements of life, which is a book that I highly recommend, but in it he totally says basically that so much of our drama, our problems, the problems we create for ourself are because we've taken things personally. And, friends, when we start to be able to bounce back, forget about it and move on and not take things. So, personally, we start to have peace, we start to have freedom and, like Molly, we wake up the next day ready to jump out and grab life by the horns, ready to go chase the ball, ready to go I don't know jump in the field and get dirty 24 hours after we finally had a bath. But whatever we're ready to do, molly doesn't hold on to things and she jumps out ready to tackle the day, ready for a new adventure.
Speaker 1:Now, one thing I want to close with in this show is to just tell you I have a dear friend, rather, and he was diagnosed several years ago with a harrowing cancer, a very scary one, and we didn't think he'd live very long, and I don't think he did. The prognosis was not very good and he was asked to give a prayer at a church meeting to open it up. And these are the first words he said. He said Heavenly Father, thank you for the opportunity of the day, thank you for the opportunity of the day. Those words struck me to the core.
Speaker 1:Here's a man who doesn't know how many days he'll have left, and what is he giving thanks for? Thank you for the opportunity of the day. We too can have that gratitude and recognize each day is an opportunity. If we don't take things personally, we don't hold on to things, we forget about it and move on and get on with our work. Friends, that's largely the key to happiness in life. It's largely the key to happiness in life. It's largely the key to happiness today and will largely be the key to happiness to the people around you. Until then, be good, do good works and tune into our next episode of Life Notes. Have a great day.
Speaker 2:You have been listening to Life Notes with Sheldon. Listen every week for a brand new note on life. We hope that we have given you a way to get off the sidelines and back into the game of life as your best you, you.