Are you ready to meditate with Kari?
Make sure that you're laying down,
You're trying to be still and quiet so that your body can relax and let go of your long busy day.
Take a nice big deep breath in for me,
Breathe all the way down to your tummy and then breathe it out.
Let your tension and your stress go.
Again,
A nice big deep breath all the way down to your tummy.
Breathe it out,
Let go of your tension and relax.
Tukka had just got home,
He'd been on a date with Belinda,
They'd been to the park,
They'd been playing tug-o-war,
Chase the ball,
They'd been playing frisbee with a frisbee and they'd had a lot of fun.
But Tukka couldn't wait to get home to tell Leo all about it.
Leo was laid on his dog bed,
He'd been fast asleep most of the day,
Just relaxing on his warm comfortable bed when Tukka bounded through the dog door.
Leo,
Leo,
You're not going to believe it Leo,
You know what Leo,
I've had such a good day,
I've had such a good day,
We've been playing all sorts of different games at the park and you're not going to believe it,
You're not going to believe what happened.
Leo raised one of his eyebrows and said,
What Tukka?
Tukka said,
She's so strong,
Belinda,
Belinda is so strong,
You wouldn't think it because she's so kind of like furry and pretty and soft and everything,
But she's so strong.
We were playing tug of war with that rope thing that we have,
I took it to the park and we were playing and she kept beating me,
She kept like digging her feet down into the ground and she was doing all my techniques and I thought,
She's going to win,
What am I going to do if she's going to win?
I don't think I've ever met a girl as strong before and that was it.
As soon as I thought it,
She did it,
She won,
She kept winning over and over and over again,
She's so mushy and I was like,
This girl is a princess,
How is this girl beating me at tug of war?
And then I thought to myself,
You know,
Maybe princesses can be really strong,
Maybe not all princesses are girly,
Girly princesses,
Maybe some princesses don't need their princes to save them,
Maybe I'm going to be one of them princesses,
No,
No,
Not a princess,
I'm going to be one of those princesses that gets saved by a princess.
Leo said,
What's all this got to do with princess and princesses?
Tucker said,
Well,
Let me tell you,
You know like Vea,
You know Vea is a princess,
Our friend Vea and she's a princess and she dresses like a princess and she wears princess crowns and she wears princess gloves and she wears princess shoes and princess dresses and she always says,
Always,
Always is very like,
You know,
Kind of girly,
Not in a bad way,
But just very gentle and delicate and very,
Well,
Princess like,
Isn't she?
She's very princess like and then she likes to do nice gentle things that princesses do,
Like wear pretty dresses and not get dirty and she doesn't come across as if she's really strong or anything,
Does she?
Well I was thinking this morning when I was looking at Belinda,
Oh Belinda,
You're so beautiful,
Belinda,
I love you so much and as I was thinking,
Oh,
She's so beautiful,
I was naturally just putting the two things together,
She's beautiful,
She's a princess and maybe I should treat her like a princess,
I should treat my girlfriend like a goddess,
Said Tucker.
Leo said,
Yes,
Well,
It's always nice to treat girls like a goddess because they are,
Aren't they?
Tucker said,
Well,
Yeah,
That's what I thought,
But can goddesses or princesses be like princess warriors?
Leo said,
Hmm,
I see where you're going with this.
Tucker said,
Now do you get what I'm putting down on the table?
I'm telling you,
I think she's a warrior because she's so strong and she beat me every time it took a war,
Then she beat me at Frisbee,
Then,
Then we were,
We were,
We were,
We were going to go on a certain walk that takes us past this certain garden that has certain roses in it and I was all prepared,
Leo,
I was all prepared to jump over into the garden and snap with my jaws at those roses and grab about 12 roses,
You know,
A dozen roses and be all romantic and give them to my,
My darling girlfriend,
Belinda.
And I was like jumping through the roses,
Biting and snapping at them with my teeth.
She just stood there and watched me and then I got 12 dozen,
Well,
Not 12 dozen because that would be a lot,
But I got 12 roses and I gave them to her and I got down like in front of her and I go,
There you are,
There's your roses because you're a princess.
And she said,
Tucker,
That's lovely.
Thank you.
Do you know what I like to do with roses?
And I said,
No,
Belinda,
Do you like to put them in a vase?
And Belinda said,
No,
I don't.
I'll show you what I like to do with roses.
I chased her.
I chased her for a mile.
She's so fast,
So fast,
Like I couldn't catch up.
My tongue was sticking out.
It kept like dragging on the ground because you know,
I've got a big tongue and I was like,
She's so fast.
Why is she so fast?
I don't believe it.
And then I was chasing her and chasing her and chasing her.
We must have run for like two miles,
Leo.
And she's just never,
She didn't look puffed or anything.
She kept running and running and running and running.
And then we got to that farm.
You know that farm that's at the top of the hill that's like obviously two miles away.
We got there and do you know what she did with me roses?
Leo said,
No,
What did she do with your roses?
She gave them to Henry,
Said Tucker.
Henry is a cow that lives at the farm up the hill,
About two miles away.
He has a whole patch of grass to himself and he's a very nice cow.
Tucker happens to like Henry a lot,
But he couldn't believe she'd given her roses away.
Tucker said to Leo,
Leo couldn't believe it.
I was like,
Well,
That's not very,
Very like princess like is it?
You think a princess would save the roses,
Maybe even dry the roses.
You know what some girls are like?
They hang them upside down and then,
You know,
Like Mummy,
And she saves them for ages and ages and ages.
And then when they're dry,
Sometimes she hangs them in a bedroom upside down in like a design and fancy stuff and all that.
Or sometimes she even dries flowers in books and makes pictures out of them.
She's very,
Very girly like that.
Is it,
See this is my question Leo,
Is it girly or is it just artistic?
Because boys could do that too,
Couldn't they?
They could do like flower arrangements and make flower pictures,
Couldn't they?
And all this time I've just been thinking girls do it because dad doesn't do anything like that with flowers.
Dad's just the one that buys flowers.
So I was thinking I would give her flowers.
She'd think I was like this charming prince or something.
You know,
Save the day because I'm so charming and I'm so prince like and I'm so like,
You know,
A warrior.
But she didn't.
She didn't.
She gave him Henry.
And Henry just stood there and chewed them.
He chewed every single rose Leo.
He ate them all.
And Henry looked at Belinda and he said,
Belinda,
You're such a good friend.
Thank you for bringing me those flowers.
They were delicious.
You know I like flowers.
And I was looking at Henry like going they were my flowers.
They were my roses.
I risked my hiney pinching those roses from Mr.
Watson down the road.
And she never even cared.
She just gave them away.
But you know really if you think about it,
It's very loving and kind,
Isn't it?
That's it.
It is.
It's loving and kind.
But it's not necessarily princess like because you know,
I would think princesses would want to make like princess fairy like flower headbands or something.
But she gave them away,
Which is very kind.
And I think I love her even more for it.
And then you know what she did Leo,
You know what she did.
We were playing in the park and we were playing on the swings and then we were playing on the slide.
And I went to grab one of her paws to help her climb up the slide because that slide's quite deep and it's got lots of steps.
And by the time you get to the top,
It could be a little bit dangerous.
And I put my paw out and I said Belinda get my paw.
I'm helping you climb the steps.
And she laughed at me Leo.
She laughed at me.
She turned around and said,
I don't need your help.
Even though it's very polite of you Tucker.
Thank you so very much for taking care of me and thinking about me,
Which is always nice in a relationship.
But I don't need your help.
I was like,
What am I supposed to do then?
I'm like chopped liver.
I'm useless.
Absolutely useless.
I can't help her.
But then I was thinking,
Okay,
Well maybe,
Maybe she needs me to pick something up really heavy.
Cause dad does that for mum all time,
Doesn't he?
He like comes in and he saves the day and he picks up something really heavy.
And then I was thinking,
Maybe we should go to the store and get something in a can or something in a jar.
Because dad always opens jars for mum cause she can never do it.
And then he's like all proud of himself and he puffs up like a big puffer fish because he thinks he's so strong.
Cause he just opened a jar of pickles.
I'm like,
It's just pickles dad.
But dad's like,
You know,
Strutting around the kitchen like he's a peacock or something.
And I was like,
I'm going to do that.
I'm going to do that.
We're going to go to the store.
I'm going to buy some pickles and I'm going to take her and I'm going to see if she could open her own pickles.
And I thought to myself,
I bet she can't.
There's no way she can open her pickles.
Do you know what she did Leo?
Leo said,
Oh,
Did she open the pickles Tucker?
Yeah,
She did.
She didn't even flinch Leo.
She just twisted it off like it was nothing.
And I was like,
Oh no,
She's stronger than me.
She's more of a warrior than I am.
Dad would be all confused.
I thought to myself,
But you know,
The more I thought about it,
The more I was like,
This princess does not need saving.
How awesome is this?
She's like so self compact.
She's got everything she needs.
And the fact that she just wants me in her life must mean that she doesn't need me.
She just wants me.
And then I was in love even more.
I was like,
Wow,
She wants me in her life.
She doesn't need me in her life just to open pickle jaws.
She wants me in her life.
And I was like,
This is so nice.
I did feel a little bit of a pain sometimes.
Like,
You know,
Like when you keep competing with someone and they keep winning and you're like,
Ooh,
That stung a little bit.
It was a little bit like that at times Leo.
I felt a little bit stung.
Like my pride was a little bit wounded.
But then I was like,
You know,
I could have pride in different ways.
I could be proud that my princess is a princess warrior.
And then that completely changed my outcome.
And I was like,
Wow,
Belinda's a princess warrior and I love her so much.
Tucker kept going on and on and on a little bit more.
And then he remembered something else about Belinda and told Leo a little bit more and a little bit more.
Leo closed his eyes.
He kept twitching his ears as if he was listening,
But he really wasn't.
It was time for another nap.
It's tiring listening to Tucker.
He got all comfortable,
Laid his head down on his paws and then he got floaty inside.
He started dreaming about going to the park and it was completely empty.
He was in heaven.
No other dogs,
No other people,
No children.
It was wonderful.
He was swinging on a swing,
Going back and forth and back and forth until eventually he just faded out into a deep,
Deep sleep.
The end.
