Sucess and how do we define it? Today I define it as accomplishing one small task I hate to do. Cut my dogs toe nails. I always put it off. I feel guilty about putting on the muzzel but his is a grumpy old man at age 12 that has always rebelled against nail cuttings and brushing. Today, though, was engough. It has to hurt him to walk around with those long toe nails, and the click-clacking on the floor is loud and irritating in the middle of the night.

Usually I finagle my daughter into helping me, but she got her own apartment last summer. So his toe nails have just grown and grown and I simply watch because I felt disabled from doing it on my own. To many other unhelpful experiences with other dogs in the past have made me abhore the whole event. For instance, the vet in Iceland that told me if you accidentally cut the quick use the vehicle lighter to cauterize it. That was not fun at all and I just couldn’t do it. Curel I tell you, curel.

But truth be told, those reasons are just that reasons I need to deal with, and my inability to deal with them acutally cause him uncomfort. For that I should be appologetic. But appologies don’t always fix relationships, especailly when your appologizing to your dog. He doesn’t care. He just needs his nails clipped.

So taking the preverabal bull by the horns or rather a boxer by the paw, I was determined that his well being was not interfered with by my own fear. I didn’t need my dauthers or my husband to hold him still. I didn’t need to have anxiety. It was time to stand tall and just do it. So I did — to a degree: A healthy degree that gave me space to tend to him and ensure that I was not causing him harm. What did a do? I made an agreement that I would clip off just the very, very end, so I did not accidentally getting the quick. Then in a week I will repeat.

Now I sit here looking at those clippings and I think, maybe tiny clippings are just the thing alot of us need to help deal with the big anxieties of our lives. A little snip here and a tiny snip there, with each snip shaping or reshaping a truama into something that just might be beautiful to walk with.

For me, today, that looks like addressing an unhealthy place in my life, not giving my dog the best because of my own fear, with the challange to just take a tiny snip. What tiny snip can you take today? What little tiny piece of an over grown problem can you clip at today? Maybe it is something as simple as folding the laundry for your spouse. Maybe it something as large as walking into a room with a person you dislike and not letting them get under your skin. Maybe it is saying no to just one more drink or Maybe it is saying yes, to loving yourself today. What every form it comes in, take the small clippings as a success. You are worth it.

Dear Lord, on this day we bring to you all of the ways we have overgrown “nails” in our lives. These are places that we would rather hid from than deal with. Give us courage to see how those over grown places actually prevent us from walking and living with health. Help us use the right tools and to make thoughtful snips, so that when we start clipping we are able to provide healing and not more harm. In Jesus name. Amen.