Lessons learnt from a dog

This morning when I took my dog Alfie for a walk, as usual this fellow was prancing about to get me to put on his collar and leash. Once that is accomplished, he starts pulling at it and tries to get it away from me. This happens most days and today was no different. But suddenly it struck me that this is very similar to what happens to us in our lives.
When ever we have a lack of something in our life, we yearn to have it. For example when a young man doesn't have a girlfriend, he feels the lack of it and yearns to have one in his life. When he gets the girl of his dreams, he feels the pressure of not being married and sooner or later succumbs to this pressure and marries her. Once married, there is the pressure of this relationship where he discovers that he cannot satisfy all the demands of this relationship and yearns for a break from this so he can get some peace. he forgets that once upon a time he had that peace but he was not satisfied with that.
Do you realise that whenever we don't have something, we want it badly? And when we get it, sooner or later we want a break from it? We are as contrary as my dog. When he doesn't have the leash, he wants it and craves for it. When he gets it, he wants to break free from it.
This pressure or tug between what we have and don't want; and, what we want and don't have defines our life and the way we deal with it determines the quality of our life.
So be mindful about what you have and what you don't. Be grateful that you have what you have, and don't have what you don't, because the absence of the former or presence of the latter may bring about pain.
Be content where you are and where you are going, because if you were not here, you may have been yearning to get here.
Don't search for what is not here, because once upon a time, you had yearned to be where you are now.
Enjoy every moment. It's a gift.