This week our assignment was to choose a virtue to focus on daily for one week. I chose decisiveness since I thought out of all the virtues, this was the one I needed to work on.
I was completely wrong! After two days of being an active observer of my decision making and the decision making of others, I realized I, and others around me, make a lot of decisions often without thinking about it!
On Friday I went to work on the farm. Our facilities manager brings his German shepherd, Zeus, to the farm for a few hours every day he’s working on the farm. He told us how Zeus gets so excited when he’s asked, “Zeus, do you want to go to the farm?” Zeus starts to whimper, does a happy dance, and runs to the front door.
When Zeus arrives on the farm and is allowed into the warehouse, he immediately runs to the produce storage bins in hopes of finding his favourite vegetable: Cabbage. Zeus loves cabbage, especially green cabbage.
If you toss cabbage leaves at him he’ll catch it and gobble it up. He’ll chase after cabbage leaves if you throw it so he’ll fetch it. Often he’ll do a happy dance and wag his tail after successfully attaining more cabbage.
When we were cleaning and packing the cabbage, Zeus went to each one of us, patiently waiting for us to drop cabbage leaves for him, either on purpose or by accident.
He never once tried to reach into the compost bin to grab cabbage leaves or stick his head into any of the boxes sitting on the pallet scale no matter how tempting and easy it would have been to grab cabbages leaves from the forbidden bins and boxes.
Zeus was like a child at Christmas, hopeful and bright eyed. As soon as a cabbage leaf was dropped or tossed to him, he excitedly grabbed it and happily gobbled it.
At one point it was just Zeus and I around the cabbage bins. Zeus found a cabbage leaf with rot on one side and an edible section on the other side. I was curious to see what Zeus would do.
Zeus pinned down the rotten side with his left paw and began yanking the good part of the cabbage leaf with his teeth. Once he devoured the edible section of the cabbage leaf he had a triumphant look on his face.
There was no doubt about it: Zeus’s DMP (Definite Major Purpose) was to eat cabbage. His Personal Pivotal Need (PPN) was to eat cabbage for True Health and be enthusiastic about it. Almost nothing was going to stop him from eating cabbage, not even a partly rotten cabbage leaf.
Zeus’s Plan of Action (POA) was to:
1. Check out the cabbage bins for cabbage leaves lying nearby, with enthusiasm (Do it Now!)
2. Visit everyone working on cabbage to give him cabbage leaves (Master Mind Alliance)
3. Remove the good section of cabbage from a cabbage leaf with rot
4. Be happy and celebrate after eating cabbage (Positive Mental Attitude, “I did it!”, “I can be what I will to be!”)
Maybe if I hadn’t chosen to focus on decisiveness this week, I wouldn’t have noticed how Zeus unknowingly lives the Master Key Experience! I’m so glad I learned an important lesson from Zeus the Cabbage Lover.
Thanks so much Deb. I’m glad you liked my blog about Zeus. Yes, I think it’s interesting that Zeus is living the principles of the MKE.
Thanks so much Marguerite.
Thoroughly enjoyed your story of Zeus, Deanna. I could clearly see his tail wag. Thanks for a fun read.
A fun and entertaining blog. Isn’t it interesting that Zeus is also living the principles of the MKE?
Thanks so much Joan. I’m glad you had fun reading my blog.
Thank you Suzette. I’m glad you had fun reading my blog on Zeus.
Thank you Robert. I’m glad you enjoyed reading my blog. It was fun to write.
Thanks so much for your compliment Suzanne. I’m glad you enjoyed my blog and learning about Zeus. Zeus is an incredible dog and I’m sure if you met him you’d love him!
Another great blog Deanna. I love dogs and watching them when they are hyper focused on something is incredible. We can learn a lot from them. Discipline is another great attribute that they have and it sounds like Zeus has that also. Thank you for sharing, I smiled the entire way through.
That was a thoroughly enjoyable read! You did a great job of helping me visualize Zeus and this adventure. Very descriptive! You captured all the highlights of MKE and showed greatness as the observer! Very well done!
Deanna, what a lovely story! I laughed out loud. Thank you for sharing this wonderful inspiring lesson.
Hi Deanna, Interesting how you observed decisiveness through the process of working with Zeus. Indeed Zeus has a DMP and a POA. Your post was fun to read.