Marley and Me and Plowing Through Poop

I just finished watching Marley and Me. Quick side note, did Jennifer Aniston get her eyes done? I think she went from Jennifer to Jennita. Anyway, this movie needs to have a disclaimer for all dog lovers: “If you think your dog is immortal, do not view movie.” Bawled. Then after I picked up 18 tissues off the couch and pulled out my shoe box that houses all of my pictures of my past animals and bawled some more, I decided to hop on the blog train. Not because I want to write about the “unconditional love” of dogs; clearly we have Marley to teach us that. What actually struck me in that movie was the line Jen said about “it being hard and no one warning us.” Owen asks her to repeat what she meant by that. Jen goes on to explain that the “it” was marriage, children, having these huge responsibilities and absolutely no one warned her about how difficult it all is. She was floored and baffled that no one grabbed her hand before throwing her last birth control pill pack out. No one yelled out, “Swallow the Tuesday pill Jen!” No one said that you get ripped from your navel to your back door while giving birth. No one said, “Wait Jen, this is another human that you will have to feed and bathe and clothe and wipe nasty, green snot from and scoop up smelly, runny poop from and then teach them good things and tell them that they are special even if they have a tail and three eyes and then monitor their every move and be one step ahead of them constantly and then throw out their porn that their friends gave them and then see that they finally have some kind of potential which is in a subject that wasn’t even around during your young adult life and then finally, FINALLY after all that, you have to let them go after 18 years. But even then they are a part of you forever, their emotions, their ups and downs. You will never be the same. Are you 100% sure you want to do this?” (She didn’t really go on to say this in the movie but boy does that paint a visual of that warning she had missed.) Owen goes on to say that people did warn her it would be hard, she just wasn’t listening. I LOVE this line. He couldn’t have been more poignant. It isn’t easy and we usually we don’t listen. I know I don’t. But where would we be if we did listen and always try to take that easy road? Well, quite frankly, it doesn’t exist. And if that easy road does exist, its pretty boring. I’ve had a very interesting past year. It was brutal and hard at first but working through it, I’ve had so many blessings come out of it. Like Jen in the movie, it was hard and is hard but she stuck in there and worked through it and came out with an abundance of joy and memories on the other side. So when you are up to your knees in sh*t, accept that it is hard and plow through it. There will be blessings on the other side. And if you’re brave enough, get a dog to keep that smile on your face.