Giver or receiver?

Dear Friends/Liebe Freunde

Recently I received a (according to me) brilliant message from Michael, who is one of my MKP-Brothers. For that reason I am sharing it with you.

Dear Bruno,

Are you a Giver or Receiver?

 About 30 years ago I went bankrupt. My close friends gave our family food and money every day until months later I had found an income producing job. This bankruptcy interlude was one of the happiest periods of my life – yes happiest. To think that people so loved and cared for my family that they would go out of their way to ensure we could survive.
I did not beat myself up for losing my business and I was not too proud to accept the food that was given to our family of six. It was a totally new experience for all of us. Our children took it in their stride as we shared our gratitude openly. Some of the Givers were too embarrassed to knock on our front door and so left anonymous gifts for us – all the same, they were gracious Givers.
 What type of Giver are you? What type of Receiver are you? Generally we tend to focus on giving as “goodness” of feeling good or intending good.
Do you take compliments bashfully? Do you say, “Aw, it was really nothing”? Do you tell them to stop teasing you?
One of the big reasons most people don’t reach their full potential, financially or otherwise, is that they are very, very poor Receivers. Your Inner-e wants to receive everything with kindness and dignity. But often the outer personality has ideas of its own.
And then there’s that phrase that a lot of people heard when they were young, and we still hear it: Its better to give than to receive.” This makes receiving inferior to giving. From my experience, it is more difficult to receive than to give – it takes more inner courage to receive with gratitude than to give for whatever reason. Often there may also be an ulterior motive in giving to anyone.
How does it feel to give, especially when that person didn’t ask you for anything yet you knew they were in need? Most people say it feels great, yes? It’s especially the grateful receivers that make us feel even better about our giving, but what was your motive in giving? Could have it been for a tax rebate or to save a starving family?
So here’s your practice. No more returning compliments for a specific time! If someone gives you a compliment, you’re not allowed to give them a compliment back at that time because it dishonours them – you need to become a gracious Receiver. Returning a compliment because you think you have to robs them of the full joy of giving you the compliment. And it robs you of being a good Receiver. Become a gracious honourable Receiver and accept the compliment with gratitude. Do the same when your partner says they love you – savour the moment and allow the Giver’s words to sink in with all the thankfulness you can must up. But don’t just give it back – feel it first.
Receive with the same joy that you give – It is what will make you greater than you are in your career.
Until next time Bruno,
Michael
Sunday 29.09.2013

Thank you very much for joining me during my 70th birthday walking classes in Jalon/Xalo on Sunday 22nd September 2013. It is my intention to keep on having birtday parties until I leave for the eternal hunting fields.

Herzlichen Dank fuer ihre Anwesenheit waehrend unsere Wanderung genau am Tag wenn es mein 70. Geburtstag war. Mit 70 Jahre ist es schoen mit Freunde und Hunde wandern zu koennen. Es ist meine Zielsetzung es noch viele Male zu wiederholen.

This coming Sunday 29.09.2013 we will walk in Adsubia. We will meet Anna and John at La Moleta at 9.30. If you do not know where La Moleta/Adsubia is, come and join me at the library in Jalón/Xaló where I will wait for you, but I will leave at 8.45.

Love and blessings from Bruno
LieGrue von Bruno

Walking the dog

Walking the dog – is that a rabbit over there?

For a dog or pack of dogs the purpose of a walk is to hunt. They sniff, circle, go off track, all with the aim of looking for prey. Our job as pack leader is to lead the hunt. We want our dogs to be vigilant of us so they remain safe, in communication with us and don’t get into mischief with other people or dogs. We do this by ‘hunting’ together.

What ‘the walk’ isn’t

As humans we tend to think of ‘the walk’ as a means of going from A to B and then back again. We get to where we are going by the shortest means possible and then hurry home.

But dogs don’t think of ‘the walk’ as a process of travel, but an activity. They aren’t going in a straight line but are out to investigate the terrain with their pack.

How to do this?

Imagine you are a dog. You are padding along the track, joyfully sniffing and suddenly you smell the tantalising aroma of a rabbit or maybe you see the blur of a white cotton tail, and you are off, we need to catch our dinner!

As pack leaders we are doing the same, leading our dogs in finding things to investigate, hunt and eat.

We can imitate this by simply changing direction (what’s that sound I heard?); step off the path (nice smell over here); change tempo (ooh squirrel, chase! Or slowly, let’s stalk and get in position around this rabbit bush) or hiding behind a tree (better check out who’s marked here lately). We just wait till our dogs find us and then off we go again.

Doing the unexpected

Pack leaders job is to decide when to go and where to go. The followers make sure they keep the pack leader in sight because it’s their job to follow. As we change direction, tempo, position or go off track our dogs need to stay close by, so they know what’s going on. They are part of our Team Dog and need to be aware what the leader is up to so dinner doesn’t get away.

The more unexpected we are in our behaviour the more our dogs have to mentally work and communicate with us. Where’s pack leader? Oh over there. What’s pack leader doing? Has s/he found something? We wait whilst pack leader decides where to go. Pack leader has decided.  Now we move off, together.

So now, instead of us seeing the far away view of our dog’s behind, they keep their eye on us, so they know where we are. As we keep them guessing, they stay close.

 Strange is best

‘The walk’ in these terms is strange. Remember we are no longer doing a walk in human terms but in a dog’s terms.

We might get funny looks from others as we meander around, seemingly without purpose – they don’t know we are imaging stalking rabbits. But remember our dogs will love it as they realise they don’t need to worry about who’s in charge anymore, we lead the activity they just have to relax and follow.

But best of all we will love it as we realise our dogs are staying close, calmly sharing with us their joyous experience of being a pack member on a hunt.

Anne Duguid 

Walking classes 08.09.2013

Liebe Freunde,

Laut  Wettervorhersage werden wir Sonntag anfangen mit 16 Grad.

Deswegen ist mein Vorschlag das wir nicht mehr um 8.00 order 9.00 Uhr anfangen sondern wieder um 10.00.

Vielleicht ist es unter diese Umstaende moeglich fuer Carmen und Roger mit zu machen, weil die dan nicht ZU frueh aufstehen mussen.

Gerne moechte ich diesen kommenden Sonntag mit Ihnen in Orba spazieren.

Ich schlage vor das wir uns am 08.09.2013 um 9.45 fuer 10.00 am Friedhof in Orba treffen. Falls sie sich nicht erinnern koennen wo das ist, warte ich bis 9.45 an unsere Bibliothek in Jalón/Xalò.

 

Vergangene Woche haben wir in Alcalali 3 schoene Hunde gesehen. Schau mal hierunter.

Dear Friends,

According to the weather forecast we will have this coming Sunday 08.09.2013 a temperature starting at 16 degrees. For that reason my suggestion is NOT to meet at 8.00 nor at 9.00 but at 9.45 for 10.00.

Hopefully Carmen and Roger will be able to join us again, as they do not have to get up THAT EARLY anymore.

I would like to walk with you in Orba this coming Sunday and my suggestion is to meet at the Orba cemetery at 9.45 for 10.00.
If you have forgotten where that is, I will wait for you till 9.45 at the library in Jalón/Xaló.

 

Last week we met 3 beautiful dogs during our walk in Alcalali.

Un abrazo de Bruno