8 Things I Learned From Angel

6. Don’t judge a book by its cover. Don’t judge a dog by its breed.

This might be a very old saying, ‘don’t judge a book by its cover’; but it still rings true today. We would be wise not to judge people by their outward appearance. Many women and men have been victimized by so-called ‘good looking’ serial killers. Just because a person dresses in a simple way doesn’t necessarily mean they are poor. We need to treat people nicely no matter what they look like. It is better to reserve that judgment of one’s character to a later time when you have learned enough about the person.

What is the point exactly? I guess it is simply this – ‘Don’t judge based on appearance. For the dogs, don’t judge a dog by its breed.’ Each pet has its own personality, regardless of the breed. Some pets are more loving than others, but you have to give them a chance to show it. The down side of pre- judging is you could miss out on some really great relationships. Also the reality is pre-judging is discriminating, it is viewing the world thru bias-filtered lenses.

Many people are intimidated by Angel’s appearance. They fear her when they don’t know that she is really nothing but a love sponge. I am so glad and grateful that my honey took in Angel. She has shown us the best side of a pitbull mix, she has shown that she is all about loving and affection. We adopted her but she has adopted us. All we gave her was love (and okay lots of food and treats, too, LOL) and she has given us a thousand joys, a million kisses and inifinite love. If we had just dismissed her for being a scrawny, thin, scarred and hungry little mutt, can you imagine all that we would have lost?

Don’t judge a dog by its breed. Yes. Angel taught me that!

Copyright karen galarneau 2013

8 Things I learned from Angel

5. Be loving.

There’s nothing truer than the statement that love conquers all. Angel’s loving and affectionate ways never ceases to amaze and delight us. Her affection seems to melt any stress and tiredness away. Angel has taught me to be more loving.

When we ourselves are able to show love to our family and friends, the results are tremendous. Love opens doors, builds bridges and breaks down walls. When we have love in our hearts, it shows up as genuine concern and people can feel that. Love is the reward of being alive. It makes life more colorful and worthwhile. If we can be loving or not loving, we should choose to be loving. We can correct or criticize lovingly and it would be more effective than being hurtful. People need to be loved. A loving gesture can mean a world of difference to someone. They might be having a bad day, or struggling with some issues in their life, and if we are loving to them it might give them a moment of peace. We never know when we can make that difference in someone’s life. When we do, it is an awesome moment when we can do a simple thing that is of little cost to us but priceless to someone else. It is even more remarkable when they realize that we are not expecting anything in return. We just do it for the joy that is in our heart.

Everyone needs to feel loved. It is one of the greatest human needs. To be loved is to be secure. We feel accepted and affirmed when we are loved. We feel that we are okay, just the way we are. That is why we love our friends because we feel we can be who we really are around them, and they will not judge us. And this is also why family is so important: they love us no matter what. Our home is the first place where we ever felt this sense of security, of belonging, of being accepted and loved.

“Now these three remain: faith, hope and love. And the greatest of these is love. ” 1 Corinthians 13:13

Try to be more loving today, this is how we change the world.