The Perpetual Puppy

The smartest and I are puppy sitting for a friend of ours for a couple of days this week. We do this periodically for various friends, but it has been a LONG time since we have dog-sat for a puppy puppy. I mean the feet are too big, bounces everywhere, wants to mouth on everything because its cutting teeth kind of puppy.

She. Is. So. Cute. I tried to snap a picture for you, but I literally couldn't get her to stay still long enough. So just take my word for it- she is too precious.

Of course... our pup doesn't 100% think so. She's very 'above it all' at this point, seeing as she is the ripe old age of 3 and a half, and has decided that she is an old woman. Which I don't mind. Having a dog who just wants to sleep in my lap all day is pretty much the dream, so I fully embrace her old-lady ways. She keeps looking at visiting-puppy and wondering why visiting-puppy is behaving like such a spastic weirdo.

Did you know that this post was going to be about writing, or was it the 'spastic weirdo' that tipped you off?

I got to thinking about how I'm kind of a puppy when it comes to writing. Everything is very exciting, and I want to just throw myself (I almost wrote 'up' there- which would be both different and gross) into every new project wholeheartedly. I want to dive in and do ALL THE THINGS. I keep chewing on things that I'm not supposed to, and skipping steps, bouncing around the room and getting too excited and running around without any direction.

Its been a long time since I was a puppy about something. I have learned over the 4 (can you believe it has been 4?!) years of running the shop. I started out dashing in circles around the yard and dying to make everyone happy with me, and learned slowly how to build a sustainable business. I grew into my feet, and eventually figured out when to bite and when to pass. I'm no longer a design-puppy. I'm a full fledged design-dog. There's a metaphor that I never saw coming.

I'm sure one day I will be a grown up writing-dog. I will know just how everything works, and when to bite and when to walk away. But for now, I'm a puppy. And I think that's actually kind of fantastic. May we always find something new to grow into. Something to mess up and chew on and to make us humble. Something that reminds us that we can always learn something else.

So long as we don't chew on the carpet.