Many of you know that I have a long-term back problem, but perhaps not how serious it is. The warmer weather helps and today we ventured out for a walk along the former railway line, now turned Sustrans bike track. Unfortunately, I was enjoying myself so much that I pushed my body too far and my back seized up by the side of the canal where I had wanted to look at the brightly-coloured barges. I was in a bit of a pickle and knew I couldn’t turn around and go back, nor could I see a bench to perch on while I worked out how get out of this predicament.
I was wondering how on earth I would make it back to the car when I looked up and saw on a ledge a small rock painted with the words: ‘Staffs Smilesstones, please share a pic on FB then rehide me’ with the name of the family who had put it there. It did indeed make me smile, it was such a surprise, sitting there at my eyeline, waiting for me to look up and smile.
This smile and its subsequent break into laughter helped me relax enough to make it to where I needed to go – a nearby pub where I waited while my husband walked back to fetch the car.
When I got back home, and after a few hours’ rest, I looked up Staffs Smilestones and they have a page on Facebook, full of photos of young children with painted stones and cute happy faces, finding and re-hiding the rocks all over Staffordshire for the pure joy of giving someone a smile. I joined their group and will be painting my own rocks very soon.
I am sitting here with a heat pad on my back, having taken some Arnica and smoothed on some Arnica cream, about to go to bed, but wanted to share this story with you.
Here’s a calming photo of a barge drifting along the canal for your Friday night meditation 💜 I love the reflections in the water.
I’ll be writing a fuller post with lots of photos of our walk when I’m up to it. Oh, and we didn’t get lost!
This story was first shared on Terry’s blog
Copyright: Chris McGowan
pearsnotparsnipsdotcom 
A lovely way to relax, painting stones. I have done this in the past with my students.
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Isn’t it? Thank you for reading and for taking the time to comment 💜
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I enjoyed reading your post, One of the things that attracted me to this site was that I too have had many many back problems. Laughter is a great medicine and to have someone give you a smile on your face just by looking at a rock is a beautiful gesture for anyone. I hope you have a blessed day, and many more rocks to find future, you might just find one for me one day.
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Thank you for visiting, Tim, I’m glad you enjoyed the post. I did indeed find another rock, and I have also been busy painting and hiding them. A post up soon about just thay 😊 Ps I have never heard of a Doodle!
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A Doodle, or Dood is know as a type of dog breed. We have a Goldendoodle, 1/2 Standard poodle, and 1/2 Golden retriever.
Hope that helps you understand a little bit better.
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Goodness, that probably means quite big too? My parents once had a toy poodle, but she was quite highly strung. My daughter has a 2 year old skinny English golden labrador who has so much energy and loves the countryside where they live. I alas am not a dog person, I find them too unpredictable and prefer the aloofness of cats 😄
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I totally understand, But Whiskey, is also my service dog, I am training him and he is training me, Lol.
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What kind of things does he have to do?
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Pick up things for me, such as myself when I’m on my knees, and I need to stand up, along with helping me balance myself going down stairs. I can walk up and down stairs, it’s just easier if he’s by my side when I feel weak. Whiskey is a 2 years old male, and he is replacing my older dog Curly. (12 years old) Golden retriever. I have never been so close to a dog like I have been with this dog. Yes I love all my dogs I had in the past, But for some reason I’ve gotten extremely close with whiskey. Long story short I broke my back as a firefighter 21 years ago.
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Ah, now I understand 😊 I am British and wasn’t sure what a service dog was, I thought you meant like a police dog or something. I understand about weak legs and balance too. So far, I’ve had only one actual fall, a long time ago, but the potential is always there, especially when I first get out of bed. Animals have amazing intuition. We had a cat who used to wake my young daughter up when she was having an asthma attack in the night. I have a friend who has an animal therapy business. He goes to prisons, residential care homes for the elderly, schools and so on and helps a lot of people with mental health problems. He has just published a book about the healing power of animal assisted therapy (Dale Preece-Kelly: Unleashing the Healing Power of Animals). I’m glad you have such a strong bond with your dogs and the benefit of their skills.
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That is so very sweet thank you. My bride and I socialize this dog continuously throughout the week, Taking him to stores, and brushing him daily to make sure his fur is soft and looks gorgeous on him. I can brush them for however long he wants me to meditate it’s awesome feeling. You’re so much trust and love to give. I want to share his love so much I started a blog yes that’s why am blogging now. I just started about two weeks ago or so. I went to Sherry as well so much, I used to, take photos daily of everything I did in life, but I decided to put all that energy, and feeling I have into words and sharing them with pictures. I’m just learning how to use WordPress alone right now.
I’m trying to figure out how do you spell check, and add plug-ins, but it’s hard enough trying to find my dashboard, all right enough laughing, 😏
In time this Blog will be about how to train a service dog, and possibly write a book about it. 🤷🏼♂️
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It does take a while to make it work, I took the Blogging 101 course after a few weeks which helped a lot and where I ‘met’ many newbies and some more experienced blogfers who have become blogging friends. i made a lot of mistakes but by a lot of trial and error, I am just about there, except I can’t sort out my menu which is far too big and won’t even load anymore! Anyway, good luck, my battery is now at 4% and I am about to be shut down. Nice chatting to you and meeting Whiskey 😊
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