Doggo and Existential Relief

Isn't it just great to play with doggos? They are cute, fluffy, playful, and don't hold back to blissfully wag their tail when you pet them on their head or caress them below the chin. 

It feels ecstatic to notice how the doggo closes its eyes in peace, enjoying the open and intimate communication of love between two entirely different species. I was at a local forest today, and while I was chilling with the trees, a doggo came and sat next to me. 'Aau aau eta aau, Come come Come here', I signaled him with my hands, smirking at him like a gullible young child. I started petting him, playing with his hair, and telling him he's a good good doggo. The doggo closed its eyes, seemingly in comfort, and started wiggling its tail with joy. I couldn't stop but feel the exuberance of those wags; they spoke something deep inside me today.

A unique emotion flabbergasted me. I was unsure of its origin, but it was a familiar emotion that I couldn't pinpoint. I stopped petting the dog and started navigating. I was unsure and felt the necessity to explore this peculiar emotion. Just right then, the doggo, with a low squeak, touched my arm with his nose, looked at me, and started wiggling its tail. I assumed he wanted more human attention, so I started petting him again. The more excited tail wag and closed eyes proved me correct.

This helped me gain a more defined clarity on what emotion bombarded me earlier. I noticed that I felt a strange feeling of belonging, not only with the doggo but with the universe at large. When the doggo craved my presence, I felt like I was someone, or something, in this world. He told me that I was worth someone's happiness; that in such a large pool of infinite probabilities, I was adding delight to an animal's life.

I looked back. A montage of self-reflection hit me. I went back through the thousands of moments when I was smiling with someone, sharing one another's joy, bringing happiness, and adding meaning. It made me realize that we are not isolated, that we naturally tend to add meaning in this complicated world by simply being us. 

Often, we go excruciatingly tough on ourselves. We carry unrealistic burdens and smash any form of self-love in the process. We are too occupied with seeing glorified success stories, criticizing ourselves for not doing what successful people do. In the process, we consume ourselves with burdensome attempts to prove our worth in this world, whether it be by overworking, grinding 24/7, skipping breakfast for work, and whatnot. 

A large proportion of the world's population has come to terms with the fact that life is full of struggles. It indeed is; Buddha discovered it centuries back when the world wasn't as complex as it is now. However, this form of self-acceptance comes with traits like burning out to your core to be more productive to reach a goal, to sabotage yourself and feel unworthy when you rest a little, to feel like you have to overwork to deserve the right to be a little happier in an unhappy world. 

But when the doggo snuggled up to me, it proved to me that all of that was unnecessary. That by the very virtue of being us, we add meaning to the world around us. Spending an entire lifetime working for someone else's dreams might or might not give us a sense of importance in this world.

However, when we observe the little joy we can create, I believe it begs us to take a relook at ourselves and explore the infinite reasons to be kinder to ourselves. So that, in the process, we don't forget to enjoy the bliss of a good, fulfilling meal for the sake of 10 extra minutes you give to a work that is not you.