When I was growing up we had a really odd dog named CoCo Loco.  The name fit because the dog was unusual in the fact that it liked to sleep in the middle of the street.  Now that was not of huge impact for the most part because we lived on a quiet street in a small neighborhood in the middle of Houston in the 70s.  It was a great place to live and grow up.  So I am guessing you know how this story ends… our poor dog ended up taking one nap too many in the street and was run over and died.  At least we were not told it had gone off to a farm to live….

It was in my early 20s that I came to borrow the experiences of my dearly loved and loco dog to apply to my own personal life and my developing life as a psychotherapist.  I came to understand that there are times in life where we feel run over by others.  It might be in the wake of another ambitions, it might be as a casualty of our own naiveté, or it might just be by accident.  What ever the case it never feels good.  I came to see life through the eyes of the little white dog and made an active decision: IF YOU LAY DOWN IN THE STREET, EVEN THE NICEST PERSON IN THE WORLD WILL RUN RIGHT OVER YOU… SO DON’T LAY DOWN IN THE STREET.

Now this lesson is , like many facets of the human condition, much easier to talk about and even write about than to put into practice.  The next time you feel run over just ask yourself what your part in this experience was; if you were laying down in the street you will need to get yourself up or you might end up feeling like poor CoCo Loco.