Hopefulness – “The feeling you have when you have hope. Hope-the general feeling that some desire will be fulfilled.” Definition by The Free Dictionary
We spent a long time in our production kitchen today, filling wholesale orders. After a quick lunch, we had a bunch of deliveries to make. While I was sitting in the passenger seat, I was looking at my social media pages and noticed how much hope was in the air. Everyone was posting how hopeful they were and that got me thinking of hopefulness.
Nothing says hopefulness like our dogs Otto & Klaus. They are full of hope. As soon as they hear me go into the kitchen and stand at my island workbench, their ears perk up. One second after they hear a knife slice through something, it doesn’t matter what, they come running and sit at my feet. Even if they are upstairs. This is also true of any rattling of plastic wrap or foil.
You would think that I fed them scraps and human food all day and night. It’s the direct opposite. Klaus has so many allergies that most bulldogs have, that we have to be careful what he eats. In the photos you can see a scab on his nose and his ears are a little red because he is still getting over a corn allergy. Yup, another thing added to the list.
I made a mad dash to the store last week very late in the day to buy a zero grain food, thank goodness it’s working and he likes it. The gluten free diet he’s been on wasn’t working anymore.
I’ve been a food detective my whole life. I’ve needed to keep a food journal for my own food allergies and what triggers my ulcerative colitis. When I needed to remove gluten from my diet I didn’t know it mascaraed around under so many names. I was sick for a long time figuring that out. Our older son Noah had so many food allergies and sensitivities when he was a toddler; I had to play Sherlock Holmes back then as well.
Taking Noah for allergy testing confirmed almost everything I knew. Allergy testing didn’t exist for food additives, so I figured out yellow dye, corn syrup and salicylates myself. A tough time taking away almost everything he loved, but the allergies and bad behavior went away quickly.
Every afternoon after lunch Otto starts staring me down. I know what he wants. He wants me to go upstairs and lay on my bed with him. Hopeful eyes right? After I give in, he lays down in the same place every time. He sleeps in a different part of the bed at night. Its like he’s my guard dog watching that no one comes in to disturb us. LOL
The most hopeful these guys are is to go out and play ball or go for a walk. They can be outside for 5 minutes or 5 hours; they would still be hopeful to play again. Any eye contact with either of them is misconstrued as playtime. We walk around not looking at them, until it is playtime.
I love these photos I took last summer and the big smiles on their faces. It reminded me how important being hopeful is.
