We left our dog, as usual, in the house as we left for the studio this morning. She had a bowl of clean water and the place to herself-a dog's paradise. 

When we came home 5 hours later, she was not at the front door to greet us, nor did she come when she was called.

She's a 96 pound dog in a 500 square foot house. There aren't very many places to hide. But there is one place to get stuck.

I opened the bathroom door and out poked Xena's nose. The door barely opened because the entire floor was a pile of our bathroom belongings, strewn, smashed and ripped apart. This poor thing had been like a blind bull in a china shop. Stuck behind a door in the tiniest room in the house, with no light and no answers...her terrified attempts to get out could be mapped by where the pile of goods came from: the counter, behind the toilet, the towel rack, the trash can, our huge basket of ointments, band-aids, cold and cough remedies, etc.. and even from up on two shelves. (And, because she also happens to be in heat this week, our bath mat was now much less white.)

This tiny bathroom disaster was actually a blessing BECAUSE we are moving in 2 weeks and I was going to have to go through the bathroom to organize and toss. So, while I was not planning on doing that TODAY, an hour later, I was feeling grateful for the opportunity.

But what about poor Xena? She found herself in a very new and alarming situation with no escape plan. Her fear led to knee-jerk madness that likely only scared her more. There was no end in sight for her and everything around her was at the mercy of her anxiety.

I know people like this. You probably do, too. In fact, sometimes they even take important political or decision-making positions. The result is all the same: a terrible mess...yet the urgency to put the pieces back together calls us to rebuild the system. Whenever we see someone nose-diving toward destruction (and often taking others down with them), there is likely a broken organization around the one to blame. How did the dog get in the bathroom in the first place? How did the most incapable being have access to the riskiest place in the house?

Are you reading between the lines here?

So when a system breaks down at the hands of a fear-based, blind tornado, give thanks for the opportunity to re-organize, but also have sympathy for the destroyer. I guarantee you, it's worse for them than it is for you.