My dog Hank and the pursuit of perfection

It's easy for me sometimes to labor under the delusion that it's possible for my life to be perfect. I didn't always have this problem, but ever since I met Ron it seems like occasionally I have thoughts along these lines: "well, if I just get in great shape, and write a perfect, amazing, bestselling novel, I would have everything I wanted and my life would be perfect". A few years ago, the big things in my life that I didn't have that I wanted were a husband and baby. Then, in 2003, I met this amazing guy, and, like dominoes falling, all these things that had been on my "wish" list for life started coming to me. The engagement ring, the wedding of my dreams, the graduate degree in mythology, the world's most beautiful baby-it was coming hard and fast.

Now, my life is so very happy and fulfilled. The two things still "out there" that are on my wish list are a career doing what I love, writing and talking about myth, and to get healthy and in shape, and I'm actively working on those two.

I used to fantasize about what the perfect life would look like-husband, baby, dog, house in Queen Anne with a view of the ferry boats. However, now I don't think of that life in the same way, having three out of the four. My dog helps me with this.

When I finally talked Ron into adopting a dog (all part of my plan for creating the perfect life), we found a breeder of beautiful English labs in our area. Her stud dog is gorgeous-almost white. When the puppies were born and we first saw the pictures, one of the pups in the litter had a black spot on the back of his neck. My first thought was, oh, I don't want that one-it would interfere with my idea of the perfect life. How can my beautiful dog in my perfect life have a black spot? Of course, given the way that the universe works, it was that dog that the breeder chose for us, mostly for his temperament (he was the most mellow pup in the litter, and she knew we had a baby on the way).

So, I had to let go of my ideal of the life that looks perfect. I love Hank so much, and I would never trade him for any other dog, just because he's mine. However, I'm also so grateful now that I did get so lucky as to get the pup with the black spot. He reminds me every day of how silly I was, thinking that if I could just get things a certain way, my life would be perfect. Of course it never would have been, and I would never want it to be. Every time I slip and start to think "if I could just...", I look at my beautiful dog Hank, and say a little prayer of thanks.