This is my amazing dog, Charlie. He is the kind of dog everybody wishes for. He sits next to me as I write, he greets me when I come home, he curls up next to me at night, keeping me warm… and he’s a Basenji; a clever, barkless dog, so he’s virtually silent.
Normally, if Charlie is not with me, he likes to sit at the top of the stairs surveying his kingdom. His regal posture, silence, and direct gaze give one the impression that he has unwavering confidence in himself and the world around him. There is not one whit of nervousness or indecisiveness about Charlie. He’s just a reincarnated Egyptian Pharaoh.
He’s got this one weird habit, though. When you let him out in the yard, once he is ready to come back inside he’ll sit at the sliding glass door waiting for you to let him in again. Which seems perfectly normal…
But…
Here’s the weird thing…
He’ll also do it when to door is entirely open…
In other words, Charlie could come through that open door ANY time he wants, but he’ll sit outside waiting for you to open the door anyway.
My 12-year-old son Max thinks this is hilarious. Max found out Charlie would only come in if you pretended to open the imaginary closed door. Once you did that, sound effect and all, Charlie would trot right in – happy as could be.
And this imaginary glass door got me thinking about another unseen barrier…
glass ceilings
For those of you who don’t know what a glass ceiling is, this is what Wikipedia says:
A glass ceiling is a metaphor used to represent an invisible barrier that keeps a given demographic (typically applied to women) from rising beyond a certain level in a hierarchy.
Basically, it is the idea that women (or whoever) can’t advance in their career because there is an invisible, unacknowledged-but-everyone-knows-it limitation keeping them from their goal; usually because men won’t let them. Oh, and unfortunately, there is nothing you can do about it.
NON-SENSE.
There is NO SUCH THING. It is all in your mind.
Just like Charlie thinking the door is closed and so for him… it IS, you are stopping YOURSELF.
All your time is focused on that imaginary closed door.
Here is the TRUTH in all things. There is only LIMITLESS open space.
What are you going to do with it?
Postscript: My best mate Charlie died on June 19, 2017. Rest In Peace, my beloved friend. May you romp in the limitless open space forever.
