Encouragement

When I think about encouragement, oddly enough, I think about my dog, Winston. He's a short chubby mixed breed with long black curly hair and much like me, his hair seems to get in the way of his vision sometimes. He follows me around everywhere I go. Everywhere. Not once does he leave my side. He protects me from human-like dangers, including relatives and friends, by nipping at them if they even dare come near me. And although he's vicious to strangers, he's my best animal friend, and his heart is just as big as his ever-growing belly.

Unfortunately, his slight weight disadvantage limits him from jumping as high as he should be able to. Our couch is a few feet off of the ground; easily reachable by our two other dogs, but Winston seems to have trouble. In fact, it's not often that he is able to leap onto the couch by himself.

While he's yelping and whining and scratching to find his way onto the couch and I look at him like I expect him to do it by himself, he gives me the opportunity to witness the miracle that is "encouragement". Patting the couch and saying "Come on Winston, you can do it. Jump" is enough motivation for him to use his abilities to the fullest and make his way onto the couch without me having to lift him up. That's all it takes.

I wonder about the people, dogs, Sasquatches, water buffalos, etc., that don't have these encouraging figures in their life, and I feel bad for them. It's hard to reach your potential without a little push or a little guidance. Just think of how much better the world would be if instead of condescendingly criticizing others, we encourage them to grow and think and do their best. After all, if there's no one there to say "You can do it", we can't do it. We'd all just be yelping and scratching to climb onto the couch. And even if we did make it onto the couch by some leap of faith, without encouragement, we would be so tired by then that all we could do is take a nap.