My Neighbor’s Barking Dog Might Be My Best Friend
Maybe things aren’t always what they seem.
You’re anxious.
You sit alone at night trying to watch TV, but it’s coming.
It IS coming.
BARK!
Bark! Bark! Bark!
I’m anxious just writing this. Many of us have been there. Your neighbor’s dog won’t shut up and you just want some peace.
It’s not that you hate dogs. In fact, you love them. But when you hear barking all the time, you’re missing out on the good parts of owning a dog and just getting the noise.
So how does this noisy furball become your best friend? Can’t you do better? Well, maybe not.
Life is isolating.
Very isolating.
We try to make friends, create community, and yet, we live in a world of stress caused by our jobs and the pace of life today. We’re always busy, no matter how hard we try to relax.
That’s where the dog comes in. Let’s call him Daley.
Daley is a rambunctious, fun, and energetic Australian Shepherd mix. He’s happy and ready to play. I also like to play, so sometimes I’ll run in the backyard with him. But other times I need quiet. Unfortunately, he always assumes that it’s time to play when he sees me.
Or anyone.
I drive up slowly.
Open the door.
I know it’s coming.
Bark! Bark! Bark!
After a day of anxiety and stress at work, it really doesn’t feel very good to have someone yell at you, even if it’s a dog.
But guess what. Daley’s lonely. His owners always leave him outside alone.
Waiting.
Waiting.
Hoping I’ll appear to play with him.
I’ve accidentally trained Daley to love me and play with me. But…
That also means he’ll bark.
A lot.
This really annoys me sometimes, but recently I’ve been re-thinking this. Maybe Daley is alone and just needs to play. He seems to care about me more than the people at work, or the actual causes of my stress.
He barks because he wants to play. I mean, if you’re going to make noise that’s a better reason than most people have. And maybe there’s a life lesson here.
Maybe I can apply Daley’s barking to the other noise I hear in the world. The people who “bark” at me in other contexts. If I yell back at Daley, usually it just causes more barking. And if you yell back at a person barking at you, they’ll probably bark more.
We need a reset. A way to create peace in the midst of anxiety. Sometimes that can be done through a meditative, pause like this.
Take a minute and think about why noise is coming at you and why. Can you set your mind on a focus outside the noise to hear what’s really being said? Maybe we can treat humans better by giving them the benefit of the doubt. I don’t mean being naive. I mean taking a charitable reading of any given situation and showing love to the offender.
Maybe they’re just lonely and need to bark. Maybe they’re aggressive and need something else (like a punch in the jaw). But we need to soak in the noise and contextualize it. Maybe that’ll lead us to peace in a multitude of situations.
But still.
I hear that noise and it does NOT feel good.
This barking is killing me.
