Rachel Friedman

I remember when my first daughter was born how mind boggling all the "stuff" was that accompanied her tiny little self. It wasn't just the stuff in the house -- bassinet, crib, changing table, swing and high chair, to name the obvious few, but the stuff you had to take on the road -- the carseat, blankets, diapers and their diaper bag, onesies, wipes, spit rags, slings, backpack, snugly and later, baby food jars and Goldfish crackers and OMG it seemed to get exponentially bigger as she got older until suddenly there was no more emergent need to have on hand all that stuff. Of course in my situation there were two other daughters who also went through that phase but now that the youngest is 10, we can travel pretty light these days. This is because they can walk on their own, buckle their own seat belts, use the bathroom and use pretty sophisticated language to get their needs met.

I've been developing a routine lately (Pillar 4) of intense contemplation interrupted with bursts of writing activity only periodically interrupted by Life's Other Responsibilities (Pillars I-III) -- parenting 3 daughters, caring for my menagerie, and oh yeah, earning a living to pay the bills and all that other mundane stuff. I'm fully ensconced in the writing of content and the editing of video and the management of the currently 'invitation only' user group for my emerging tome, THE SIX PILLARS OF DOG TRAINING WISDOM and I'm marveling at how the whole process is impacting my own relationships in interesting and great ways.

There's a lot in the news about today being the 200th birthday of 16th U.S. President Abraham Lincoln and that is all good and well and Happy Birthday to you to, Abe. But what a lot of people don't know is that on that same day in 1809, across the pond from Lincoln's birthplace of Hodgenville, Kentucky, over in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England, Charles Darwin was also born. The stars must really have been aligned that day for two such amazing men to have been born, their passions and life work still resonating two centuries later.

Darwin's path led him to become the most highly respected naturalist of the 19th century. He was a devoted family man (he and his wife Emma had 10 children, although not all of them lived to adulthood, common in those times), and, contrary to other Victorian era country gentlemen, spent inordinate amounts of time shaping his children's thirst for knowledge.

Last month I introduced the concept of Fang Shway as:

(Fang)The part used to bite (think both literally & metaphorically)
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(Shway)A Sure Way when dealing with dogs
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Deeper Understanding Towards Developing The Dog(s) of Your Dreams.

It all started as I contemplated how to take the epiphany of putting together knowledge, acquired from a lifetime of learning and experience, and figuring out how best to present it in a palatable, workable, logical and visual form that could stand alone as a guide towards you how to shape your dog into the dog you want, not a litany of "I don't want's", as well as a reality of what's involved to achieve that goal. An empowerment to help people do much on their own, but also recognize when the need exists to call in professional help.