Pushing Your Limits

Toddlers are hard. At the time of this writing, our kids are 5 and 1 years old, and they demand a lot of attention. So when my wife brought up wanting to care for a rescue dog for some time, my initial response was along the lines of: “Are you mad? We’re already at our absolute limit. We have no energy reserves left! This will break us!”

She knew that. But my wife has this fascinating ability to not let rationality get in the way of her desires. If she’s got her mind set on something, she becomes very obsessive, very quickly. My life’s motto, on the other hand, is much more in the spirit of “If it ain’t broke, don’t change it!”.

However, from experience, I know that

• I can’t fight her on this, and
• I’ll probably love being forced outside of my comfort zone.

So on Saturday at 11:30 pm, I drove to a highway gas station to pick up an Italian rescue puppy that we would care for until she finds a permanent home here in Germany. Since then, I’ve spent the past two nights sleeping on the floor next to her, got up at 2 am to clean up the mess she made, and went for a walk outside in the freezing dark.

And now, what was previously my limit is squarely inside my comfort zone!